Tour de France for Prisoners

Cyclelicious Shop
Bicycle Lights - Wald Baskets - Dahon - Strida

IMPORTANT: This content is deprecated. Please visit the new CYCLELICIOUS 2.0.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

By Yokota Fritz

Nearly 200 French prisoners will take part from June 4 to June 19 in the first Penitentiary Tour de France, a 2,300 kilometer (that's 1400 miles for Americans, or 5 million cubits for those of you who fancy King James English) bicycle tour through the French countryside. The 196 prisoners will leave Lille with 124 guards, other penitentiary staff and coaches traveling with them. Breakaway sprints will not be allowed in this bike ride.

Penitentiary Tour de France 2009 press conference in Lyon

IMPORTANT: Please post comments for this article at the new CYCLELICIOUS 2.0 version of this page.

Comments:

Holy COW! I hope this won't turn out to be like in the movies, where one of the prisoners come up with a bright idea to escape during this bike trip. You can't have a better breakaway than that!

# posted by

Ron : 5/27/2009 06:44:00 PM

The possibilities for these convicts are endless.

# posted by

Yokota Fritz : 5/27/2009 08:26:00 PM

This should be the next season of the terrible CBS Drama: Prison Break.

# posted by

kit : 5/27/2009 11:17:00 PM

...Except it should be called Prison Breakaway. Har har. I crack myself up.

# posted by

kit : 5/27/2009 11:17:00 PM

...originally, instead of bicycles, the prisoners were gonna do a kayak trip but it was too hard to paddle against the current when they were "sent up the river"...

# posted by

bikesgonewild : 5/28/2009 12:42:00 AM

...i did hear those convicts were gonna be riding PAR(O)LEE bicycles...

# posted by

bikesgonewild : 5/28/2009 12:57:00 AM

Great idea! just like California where they come out of prison to brutalize and mug even stronger because of the prison weight program.

# posted by

Gary : 5/28/2009 07:56:00 AM

For some reason this news just invites jokes, doesn't it?

# posted by

Yokota Fritz : 5/28/2009 10:43:00 AM

It is kinda nice to see an attempt made to treat prisoners like people and maybe make them able to function when they are finally let out of prison. Very creative.

Will the winning jersey be yellow stripes?

# posted by

Adrienne Johnson : 5/28/2009 11:48:00 AM

I can't imagine why someone would want to escape from a prison where they're treated to things like 2 week bicycle tours through the French countryside. In the real world the best I can manage is a daily 8 mile commute. One of these days I hope to fit a vacation in.

# posted by

Cafn8 : 5/28/2009 03:02:00 PM