[MUSIC PLAYING]
NARRATOR: Every July, the world turns its attention
to the Tour de France.
[CROWD CHEERING]
For fans, 3,500 kilometer course is
a postcard, studded with chateaus and high mountains.
But for those who dream of wearing the Maillot Jaune,
it's an all-out assault on the mind and body.
JULIEN DEVRIES: Everybody wants to win the Tour de France.
Everybody who will go to the Tour de France is 100% ready.
DAN MARTIN: You spend two months, three months preparing.
And it's the pinnacle.
TONY MARTIN: The tour is definitely the biggest.
And you feel the atmosphere.
You feel also distress.
ALBERTO CONTADOR: [SPEAKING SPANISH]
PETER SAGAN: The tactic in the race, every day in Tour de
France is different.
Every day you have to fight with different things.
JULIEN DEVRIES: My name is Julien Devries.
I was the head mechanic for Eddy Merckx, Greg LeMond,
[INAUDIBLE], and a lot more riders.
Eddy was something special.
And he's still the guy in Tour de France.
PATRICK DEGEYTER: Everybody knows Julien.
So yeah, he was with all the great racers.
So the stories are so good.
I write all the stories I hear.
I write it.
Or we'll make a book.
JULIEN DEVRIES: You'll pay me to write a book.
PATRICK DEGEYTER: Yeah.
JULIEN DEVRIES: In '63, I did my first Tour de
France, one of the last ones that was starting
in the middle of Paris.
In the beginning, we have not the possibility
to have so money bikes and wheels and tubes,
wheels for the cobblestones, wheels for the mountains,
wheels for this.
Before, you have nothing.
You must do with the small things you have.
I like [INAUDIBLE].
It's a lot of people.
They have nice roads.
We have also Bordeaux.
It's like classic racing.
Bordeaux was the place to be for riders in the Tour de France.
ERIC CRAIG: I'm Eric Craig.
We run a guest house in the Pyrenees, the base
in the Tourmalet in Aspen.
The tourmalet, called the tourmalet,
is in fact, the most used cull in the Tour de France.
It was first used in 1910.
The Tour de France had never gone into the high mountains
before 1910.
And they chose this area.
The Tour de France is such a proud event for the French.
You could hardly imagine France without the Tour de France.
The tour is 50% mental and 50% physical.
PETER SAGAN: Maybe it's good weather or bad weather
or if it's cold and hot, you are always on the bike.
You have to like that.
If you don't like that, it's hell.
JULIEN DEVRIES: You can have a rider who can climb around.
You must also be there also on the flat stages
and the windy stages.
You must be there 21 days.
ERIC CRAIG: This race is, without doubt,
unrelenting for these athletes.
It is phenomenal, the endurance and the pain
that they have to cross through.
VINCENZO NIBALI: [SPEAKING SPANISH]
TOM BOONEN: I still remember the first stage I won on the Tour.
Feeling-wise, it was one of my best victories ever.
DANIELLE BENALI: [SPEAKING SPANISH]
MARCEL KITTEL: I was very lucky to wear the yellow jersey
on two different days.
Every spectator knows your name.
They are cheering for you.
Can really feel the magic of the jersey.
You can feel the history.
It's a very special moment.
ALBERTO CONTADOR: [SPEAKING SPANISH]
[MUSIC PLAYING]