Thailand's Tour de France
Thailand wants to bring the Tour de France to Asia. The Thai tourism office (TAT) says it recently had a conversation with Jean-Etienne Amaury, the chairman of Tour organizer ASO.
“We are still talking to the organizers of the Tour. We are thinking about the year 2016. We don't know yet how many stages we want to keep, one or two stages or maybe the whole round. But Thailand is a perfect location for the competition. Sport is very popular here,' said Thawatchai Arunyik, a senior official at the TAT.
Thai visa
The English-language forum published this news from the Bangkok Post, which even reported that the Tour would start in Thailand in 2015, at the start of the AEC. As every cycling enthusiast knows, it has long been decided that the Tour will start in Utrecht in 2015. The forum is known for its often spicy reactions from readers and this time was no different.
Comments:
- How on earth are they going to organize that logistically, driving one or two days in Thailand and then the whole circus back to France?
- Nonsensical idea to hold such an event in June/July, the hottest months in Thailand
- The state of Thailand's road network is unsuitable for the Tour
- Safety during the journeys in the countryside, disasters foreseeable!
- The Tour in Thailand, where at least 95% of the population is unable to point to France on a world map.
- Do the riders in Thailand get the now famous wristband in case they fall into a ravine somewhere?
- Will this nonsensical idea be implemented before or after that other nonsensical idea of a Formula 1 race in Thailand?
- There are also rumors that the 2022 World Cup in Qatar will be awarded to Thailand.
It will go on like this for a while, but to be honest I agree that this will turn out to be a crazy project that will certainly not take place. Publicity for the TAT is apparently important to disguise problems in other areas.
You just have to come up with something to divert attention from the plummeting number of tourists.
I just hope they don't believe it themselves.
The Tour de France is the tour of a large part of Europe. You have starting places in England, Germany, Spain, Belgium and so on. Move the round to Asia with 12 hours flying time
back must be totally insane for because just to think.
Who is thaiwatcha? Will they lock him up in an open institution soon?
The Tour of Thailand could always be done.
But he wouldn't be in charge of that.
That alone would be a disaster.
People who drive on the wrong side of the road and have no clue about rules.
Cross the road everywhere and have no idea of the rules. That is already a problem in Europe
With jet lag and all the hassle around it, everything has to be flown over, it doesn't seem wise to start the tour in Thailand. I can already hear that reporter say it when Zonneveld falls asleep over his steering wheel with a bottle of Chang beer in his hand… yes, this is a nice picture!… typical Zonneveld.
I think it's a funny idea:
Tour the Farangset with the Golden Mountain temple as a first category mountain…..
They have to cycle past a few vineyards in Khao Yai for the nice, similar pictures………………..
Driving up would still go but driving down???
Why not a round in Thailand? There is already one in Argentina and in California and there too the participants complained about the too high temperatures. After Australia and Qatar still possible in the spring. Good preparation for the (cold) preseason.
We are certainly talking to Thailand, but not to bring the Tour to the country,” said the ASO spokesperson. “I think something went wrong in the communication, because we only talked about organizing a criterion, which is linked to the Tour. We have also done that in Japan.”
http://m.telegraaf.nl/article/23152152/thailand-wil-de-tour-naar-azie-halen
Apparently it was a misunderstanding
http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/1295/Tour-De-France/article/detail/2073440/2014/10/02/Thailand-wil-de-Tour-binnenhalen-ASO-heeft-het-over-misverstand.dhtml
Just a criterion where tour participants are entitled to participate and integrate with local Thai riders might be a nice idea.
They can then climb the doi inthanon in the northern province.
A beautiful route with a steep rise to 2500 meters above sea level.
also the round Chiang Mai – Pai – Mae hong Son – Doi Inthanon – Chiang Mai would be a challenge of 700 km.
Let's just wait and see what the tour itself has to offer and then that man at the TAT will have long since retired and will have had a few jaunts to talk in France because that must be on his wish list. The new method: when corruption with money is no longer possible, this kind of thing comes into the picture for personal glorification with the decision makers. Incidentally, completely the same as with Western organizations….. Perhaps it is a good thing that they do not yet know the WAO and social assistance here!
And I still think that only in Kartar goofballs walk around, but apparently also in Thailand. If this goes ahead, I am in favor of building a Formula 1 track in Greenland. Great advertising for winter tires?
Greenland also has a too few tourist problem.
Not feasible, what several predecessors have already written, in particular, the very bad roads.
Repeatedly large holes, bitumen rolled up by freight traffic, how do they organize it here to close off roads, to guide the tour through them.
It is better to start an organization in Thailand yourself, such as the Tour de Asiatic or Tour du Thailande.
Sport is very popular here,' said Thawatchai Arunyik, a senior official at the TAT.
Haaahhhaaaaah, when I pass by on my bike I hear most of them think, oh dear, that farang is out of his mind. Cycling with these temperatures and then with a helmet on.
There is quite a bit of ridicule about cycling in some responses, so that's why.
Bringing the Tour here will indeed be a step too far, but did you know that a Tour of Thailand has been taking place since 2006?
This year it was driven from April 1 to April 6 (can it be warmer !!!)
Dutchman Maarten de Jonge won the stage Lampang – Phayao on April 4….
You will not easily find the big toppers here, because of course they will be working in Europe during the spring classics.
http://www.sportuitslagen.org/wielrennen-ronde-van-thailand-uitslagen-2014-epr49470.html
Could it be that Joop Zoetemelk won the prologue on April 1?
Did they choose that starting date (April 1) consciously or was that just a symbolic coincidence?
Kito
Of course that is conscious. How else can you finish on a Sunday when that round lasts 6 days….
It seems that policy makers here in Thailand believe that there is a prize to be won for coming up with and publishing the most ridiculous idea.
How else to explain the fact that – in the past few days alone – you have been bombarded with idiotic ideas such as:
– bracelets for tourists, later followed by electronic tracking devices and
– have stages of the Tour de France – no, in fact, the entire round – run in Thailand.
If there really were such a prize to be won, these two alone would be candidate prize winners.
They probably cannot translate the name Tour de France and assume that you can also ride a Tour de France in Thailand.
Tour is definitely not feasible
But recently in chiangmai with the
BMC team trained
The Tour of Thailand month of April
So there is plenty to do for cycling
This opens up unprecedented possibilities. I can't wait for the first Thai Elfstedentocht!
Don't get any crazier… now the start of the evening four-day from Bangkok.