English over French (Not Xenophobic)

[velomaniac]

Just musing on the world of road bikes about how most genre's of the sport seem to have french names/titles, le tour, audax, etape, brevet, sportif etc.

Did we brits invent any distinct form of the road race scene and is thus not automatically referred to in a french term.

Mind you I do like the French titles, its a good sounding language

Cheers

Velo (from the french term velocipede)

 

[GarethPJ]

I find the English use of some of the French terminology quite amusing.

In particular, for some reason other nationalities seem to be able to translate "tour" correctly from the French (e.g. giro in Italian) but for some reason we have the Tour or Britain. Seemingly most people don't seem to understand that tour in French is actually closest to the English word lap in the context of the cycle race.

Oddly enough French seems to be the only language with which we do this. Take l'etape it only means stage after all. I've never heard anybody English talk about a stage of the Giro d'Italia as il tappa.

 

[FemtoMetre]

Yes, you have a point.

Kermis races from Belgium are well known and I believe that is a sort of Dutch/Flemish word.

So, we've got Madison modelled after Madison Square Garden.

Believe it or not, some of those 3 speeds are called erm, English Racers sometimes. in some places!

When you say the "Tour of Britain"; was the Milk Race basically a Tour of England or Britain? That was cool and it's cool to see bikes branded for the Milk Race, white bikes and the like.

And how about "Sprint"?? A sort of Track and Field term that applies to cycling too.

Just musing on the world of road bikes about how most genre's of the sport seem to have french names/titles, le tour, audax, etape, brevet, sportif etc.

Caboose, Lanterne Rouge I add to your list...

During the tour, I went to the library and got a lot of those history of the Tour books. The Tour has it nailed down, there are so many books on the TdF and in comparison, few on the other major races, Vuelta, Giro, etc.

In learning the history of the Tour, the use of the terminology must be largely in part due to how long France has had that Tour de France. I think it is over a hundred years old but of course, was not run during WWII or WWI! That one guy won it right before World War I and the next one after the war. He might have gotten a few too. An interesting history. I guess one can track down the Vuelta and Giro winners and all there have been but lotza books on the Tour, it's basically THE TOUR!

Lastly, I know this is a long post, forgive me, there are glossaries of the French terms connected to cycling just for this discussion, in the book and maybe something on the web too.

 

[tonyf39]

Just musing on the world of road bikes about how most genre's of the sport seem to have french names/titles, le tour, audax, etape, brevet, sportif etc.

Did we brits invent any distinct form of the road race scene and is thus not automatically referred to in a french term.

Mind you I do like the French titles, its a good sounding language

Cheers

Velo (from the french term velocipede)

I thought Velocipede was Latin (meaning fast foot & not just bicycles but human powered machines) & thus it stems originally from Italy does it not??

 

[FemtoMetre]

Just musing on the world of road bikes about how most genre's of the sport seem to have french names/titles, le tour, audax, etape, brevet, sportif etc.

Did we brits invent any distinct form of the road race scene and is thus not automatically referred to in a french term.

Mind you I do like the French titles, its a good sounding language

Cheers

Velo (from the french term velocipede)

I thought Velocipede was Latin (meaning fast foot & not just bicycles but human powered machines) & thus it stems originally from Italy does it not??

You are probably right and Latin is afterall, going to be the root language for France, Italy and Spain at the least.

For someone really interested, here is a Racing Glossary: http://www.bikeraceinfo.com/glossary.html starting off with some Flemish terms in fact.

Rainbow Jersey in Italian? Arcobelano.

Bell Lap, now that seems to be an English word.

Bonking, well, that's more of a training word, hitting the wall. One can see a list can be very expansive.

I work with foreign languages, so this is a topic I've thought about before.