No breakaways on day one of jailbird tour

CYCLING PRISONER PELOTON:WHAT COULD possibly go wrong? Close to 200 prisoners were preparing to cycle around France yesterday as the French prison authorities abandoned the traditional shut-down routine for a two-week Prisoner Peloton.

Breakaway sprints are strictly banned, attacking the field is prohibited and there will be no daily ranking of participants, so the leader will not be wearing what might have been the striped yellow jersey.

Accompanied by scores of guards, 196 prisoners will cycle as a pack – with only handle bars keeping them in check – in a marathon trip around the countryside in the hope of teaching them to act as part of a group and to think of themselves as members of a community.

Rouleurs Voleurs, the French are calling them.

Echoing the sentiments of the more cynical observers, Daniel, a 48-year-old prisoner from the western city of Nantes, said: “It’s a kind of escape for us.”

The prisoners’ peloton will be accompanied by 124 guards and prison sports instructors.

“If we behave well, we might be able to get released earlier, on probation,” added Daniel at the launch of the event. “(It’s) a chance to break away from the daily reality of prison.”

Dubbed the ultimate chain gang, the prisoners’ Tour de France will take them 2,300 km around the country.

The race started in the northern city of Lille yesterday and is scheduled to stop in 17 towns, each of which has a prison.

However, it has been decided that participants will not, like their bicycles, be locked up at night but will sleep in hotels.

Following Tour de France tradition the finish line will be in Paris.

“This project aims to help these men reintegrate into society by fostering values like effort, teamwork and self-esteem,” said Sylvie Marion of the French prison authorities. “We want to show them that with some training, you can achieve your goals and start a new life,” she added.

Team-building efforts like this are part of what some people call rehabilitative-focused forensic psychology, which centre around identifying and working through core social issues, which lead some people to commit crimes in the first place.

An ironic twist to the Prisoner Peloton experiment is that last year the French government moved to toughen anti-doping legislation ahead of the 2008 Tour de France.

Still, the drugs-plagued race finished minus three riders, who tested positive for illegal substances, while the entire Saunier-Duval team withdrew after one of its riders was among the alleged dopers.