Any rider supporting Portugal at the TdF?
By Brecht Decaluwé in Saint-Quentin Running concurrently with the Tour de France are the World Cup...
By Brecht Decaluwé in Saint-Quentin
Running concurrently with the Tour de France are the World Cup football finals in Germany. This evening, the second semi-final is on schedule between France and Portugal.
Sure, there are enough Frenchmen in the peloton, but Cyclingnews went searching for a supporter of Portugal. It turns out José Azevedo is the only rider from Portugal in this year's Tour de France peloton, but 31 year-old Carlos Da Cruz has some Portuguese roots as well, even though his nationality is French.
In 2003, Da Cruz came second in a stage of the Tour behind Pablo Lastras. We asked the rider from the FdJeux team if he would watch the game tonight, and which team he would support: "I'll be watching the game tonight, for sure," he replied.
"If Portugal wins, the French riders in the team will have a party in our room; otherwise, we'll surely find a room to party elsewhere. I'm supporting Portugal together with my friend Sandy Casar; he's not a big football supporter but, for some reason, he chose to support Portugal during this World Cup.
"We hope to enjoy a great evening, and of course, I'm supporting France as well... after all, I'm French! But for tonight, I'll support Portugal because that's going to deliver more suspense while we watch the game."
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