Five months ago, the only thing that Nicolas, Rachid and Yassim had in common with the greats of professional cycling was their high-carbohydrate dinner: pasta, served to them with unfailing regularity at the Seysses prison in Toulouse.
The rest of their lives were spent inside the four walls of the jail watching TV, doing chores or lying in their cells. Exercise, when it came, was mostly minimal and indoors. So when they were first asked if they wanted to take part in a 3,500km bike ride around the countryside of France, they had only one reaction.
“We thought they were kidding,” said Nicolas, 22, whose fresh face makes him look more like a boy-band member than a hardened criminal. “We couldn’t believe it could be true.”
But the offer was real. And on Friday the three young men set off on their 176km stretch of arguably the most unlikely sporting event in their country’s history: the penal Tour de France.
In an event organizers hope will help boost rehabilitation projects in France’s struggling jails, around 200 convicted criminals — some serving time for murder and rape — are taking part in a nationwide ride through the hills, plains and vineyards of their bike-mad country.
Selected by prison staff — who took into account good behavior as well as sporting prowess when choosing from a deluge of volunteers — the majority of detainees are riding one stage before passing the baton to a team from another prison. The ride started in Lille last week and will finish in Paris. However, instead of the grandeur of the Champs Elysees, the venue will be a rather less glamorous sports stadium on the city’s southern outskirts.
For Nicolas, the experience has been life-transforming.
“It has really changed things for us,” he said. “It’s a chance to get out of our four walls. When you can get out even for a minute it does you good.”
Philippe, a detainee from the Tarascon prison in Provence, who completed the 200km stage from Le Pontet to Beziers on Thursday, said the training had been invaluable.
“The physical effects are obvious on us all — we’ve all lost 10 kilos,” he said. “But I think it’s also strengthened the bond between us. We’ve supported each other emotionally and physically.”
Such reactions come as no surprise to Francois Grosvalet, who organized the tour in his capacity as sport development adviser to the French prison system.
“The role of physical activity in the rehabilitation process has not been fully exploited,” he said. “Sport can have a calming and balancing effect on prisoners ... It can enable them to cope better with their incarceration.”
He said it was not just the prisoners but society as a whole that stood to benefit from a more effective rehabilitation of criminals.
“We have to be pragmatic about this — to know that one day these people will get out of prison and back into society and that therefore we have to think about the future,” he said.
Despite initial concerns over security, organizers say they have had no problems with logistics. Inmates have been escorted throughout by prison officers, but have not had to wear security bracelets or sleep in rooms with surveillance.
Breakaway sprints of the kind seen in the real Tour de France have, however, been forbidden — though organizers say that is less out of fear that prisoners will take the command literally and more out of concern for team mentality. There are no stage winners, either.
Gregory Braud, 22, a prison officer who yesterday cycled from Beziers with Nicolas, Rachid and Yassim, said the security arrangements had been based on mutual trust and had helped to ease tensions between guards and inmates.
Last month thousands of prison staff went on strike to protest against their “catastrophic” working conditions, with gripes including a lack of resources to deal with violent or uncooperative detainees.
“We’ve proved we’re human and they’ve proved they’re worthy of our trust,” Braud said.
His team included Rachid, 30, who admitted that after five months of training sessions they had more respect for their guard.
“He’s almost become a friend. Almost,” Rachid said.
But for Rachid, who has one month left to serve, the tour is not enough to make up for the deficiencies of the penal system. French prisons have one of the highest suicide rates in Europe and currently have about 11,000 more inmates than they are designed for. Overcrowding has become more of a problem since Nicolas Sarkozy, a former interior minister with a tough stance on law and order, was elected president.
“In a developed country it is unacceptable that we should be treated in such a way,” Rachid said. “It’s good to be able to get out on a bike, but there are more basic things to be dealt with too.”
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