Geology of the Tour de France and the Tour de France Femmes_ Earth science meets biking
The Grand Départ is scheduled for 1 July, however the preparations for this yr’s Tour de France began greater than 400 million years in the past, when the rocks of the Central Massif and the Vosges Mountains had been shaped. Behind each climb, descent, or flat stage is a geological cause, and the crew behind Geo-Sports activities.org explains the geology that created the race parcours. Along with their standard blogs, this yr the crew may even use quick movies recorded on location. The location Geo-Sports activities.org will describe the pure decor of every stage of the Tour de France: the assorted landscapes and the treasures which can be discovered beneath the floor, for each the lads’s and the ladies’s races. Throughout this yr’s Tour de France Femmes, the crew can pay particular consideration to feminine pioneers within the growth of Earth science.
“Far more than in different sports activities, a biking race is an occasion the place you may benefit from the environment”, says geologist Douwe van Hinsbergen, Professor at Utrecht College and die-hard biking fan. “So I made a decision to share our data and the underlying geological treasures with the general public, in a enjoyable and accessible means, along with my fellow earth scientists from the Netherlands and overseas.”
Polka dot jersey needs to be crimson and inexperienced
The Geo-Sports activities.org scientists embrace 5 of Van Hinsbergen’s colleagues in Utrecht. Walter Immerzeel talks in regards to the deplorable situation of the alpine glaciers; Francien Peterse explains the origins of the soil underneath the French vineyards; Arwen Deuss tells why the polka dot jersey ought to really be crimson with inexperienced dots; Emilia Jarochowska dives into the mass extinctions that occurred 400 million years in the past; and Alissa Kotowski tells why rocks will be underneath even higher stress than the peloton in full dash.
Swiss cheese and clear laundry
This yr, the Tour de France will as soon as once more race by way of the numerous landscapes of France, and in addition northern Spain. To call only a few: the Swiss cheese of the Basque Nation hills, a volcano that was as soon as Europe’s largest within the Auvergne, rocks folded like a pile of unpolluted laundry within the Alps, and a sequence of dinosaur tracks within the Jura. In case you are curious how these phenomena had been created, how one can recognise them, and the way they have an effect on our lives as we speak, then check out Geo-Sports activities.org and the linked social media channels.
Blogs and movies
With biking commentator José Been as Editor-in-Chief, the crew behind Geo-Sports activities.org has now expanded final yr’s pilot mission with extra blogs, extra info, and movies with explanations, that are all free to make use of by the media. Utrecht College geologist Marjolein Naudé will host three movies for the Tour de France Femmes, and her colleague Douwe van Hinsbergen will do the identical for the lads’s Tour, for a complete of 9 movies. They may even co-host one video collectively. The movies will probably be utilized by tv broadcasters throughout their stay stage studies and on the finish of the related stage, they are going to be posted to YouTube and the Geo-Sports activities.org social media channels.
Ship photos
“The viewers can even share images and ask questions on Twitter and Instagram by way of the hashtag #GeoTdF”, provides Van Hinsbergen. “And through the Tour, we’ll present each day commentary by way of our Twitter account @geotdf.” Followers can even observe Geo-Sports activities by way of different social media channels (https://linktr.ee/geosports).
12 nations, 4 continents
Geo-Sports activities.org is an initiative by Utrecht College and the Naturalis Biodiversity Middle, each within the Netherlands. Thirty researchers from 25 totally different institutes in 12 nations on 4 continents participated within the mission.
The web site is in English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian and a number of other different languages.
