FRAN 325A · University of Victoria · Summer 2026
The Tour
de France
An interdisciplinary course on cycling's greatest race — its history, culture, ethics, politics, science, and spectacle.
FRAN 325A · University of Victoria · Summer 2026
An interdisciplinary course on cycling's greatest race — its history, culture, ethics, politics, science, and spectacle.
Land Acknowledgement / Reconnaissance territoriale
Every July, the Tour de France transforms the roads of France — and much of the cycling world — into a travelling theatre of sport, spectacle, suffering, and storytelling. For three weeks, 184 riders and a caravan of thousands move across mountains and plains, chased by cameras, journalists, fans, and a century's worth of myth. This course is an invitation to watch all of that more carefully.
FRAN 325A runs concurrently with the 2026 Tour de France (July 4–26), which means that what you study and what you watch are happening at the same time. The race is not background material — it is a live laboratory. Every stage brings new evidence for the ideas you are reading about: team economics, doping ethics, media narrativization, environmental cost, the globalization of sport, the representation of the body, the politics of national identity.
The course is taught in English, but students may submit written work in French if they prefer.
This is an elective, and it attracts students from across the university — kinesiology, history, political science, French, film studies, environmental studies, economics, creative writing, and more. That disciplinary range is one of the course's greatest assets. You are encouraged to bring your own field, your own methods, and your own questions to the material. You don't need to be a cycling fan to succeed here — though many students become one.
A note on the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift: the women's Tour, now one of the most exciting races on the calendar, begins just after our course ends (late July 2026). We will follow its development throughout the course and treat it as an integral part of the broader story of the Tour — not an afterthought.
Your curiosity, and a willingness to follow a bicycle race for four weeks.
All readings are provided on BrightSpace. There is no textbook to purchase. You will also develop your own reading list for the research project — the library and open-access resources have everything you need. Daily journalistic coverage of the Tour (free, online) is an essential part of the course.
The instructor posts course-relevant content on Instagram at @tdf325, using the hashtag #tdf325. This is a broadcast channel — you are not required to follow it, and the instructor will not follow students. Many of the key figures in the Tour world (journalists, riders, team directors, the organizer ASO) are also active on Instagram, making it a useful window into the race's real-time life. Consider it a supplement, not a requirement.
By the end of the course, you will have:
The course runs for four weeks. Week 1 is a pre-Tour orientation week; Weeks 2, 3, and 4 unfold alongside the race itself.
Quiz and forum deadlines are set on a week-by-week basis and posted on BrightSpace and @tdf325. Each closes at the end of its respective week.
Each week follows the same structure, so you can plan your time accordingly. The course is asynchronous — there are no fixed meeting times — but there are real deadlines, and the live race creates its own rhythm that rewards daily attention.
Each week has three components: a short Nuts & Bolts segment that prepares you to watch that week's racing intelligently; Module A and Module B, each built around a core scholarly reading and a shorter companion text. The thematic arc of the four weeks mirrors the race's own geography and rhythm — from the flat opening stages and team time trial in Barcelona, through the Pyrenees and Alps, to the final time trial and Paris.
Alongside the weekly readings, you are expected to follow the Tour as it happens — through broadcast coverage, the official race site, and daily journalism. You don't need to watch every stage live (that is what replays are for), but keeping up day by day makes the quizzes, forums, and reflections significantly more interesting — and more manageable. The race is not background to the course. It is the course.
The instructor is available by appointment. Email derosnay@uvic.ca to arrange a virtual meeting.
The Tour begins Saturday July 4 in Barcelona with a team time trial. This week gives you the perceptual and analytical tools you need before the race starts — how a stage race works, what you are watching for, and how the Tour became the cultural object it is today.
An introduction to the essential mechanics of the Tour: the general classification, the five jerseys and what they mean, team roles (domestique, rouleur, climber, sprinter, GC leader), time bonuses, and the logic of the peloton. Video-based — no reading required.
The peloton is one of sport's most complex collective organisms — simultaneously cooperative and competitive, governed by unwritten rules as much as by regulations. This module introduces the science of how the race works from the inside.
The Tour de France is 123 years old in 2026. This module situates it historically — from its origins as a newspaper circulation stunt to its status as one of the world's most-watched sporting events — and introduces the analytical frameworks that will carry through the whole course.
The first full week of racing. The 2026 Tour dives into the Pyrenees as early as Stage 3, but the first pure sprint finishes arrive around Stages 7–8 (Hagetmau–Bordeaux and Périgueux–Bergerac). Two very different kinds of racing — and two very different constructions of the athletic body — coexist this week. Reflection 1 is due Sunday July 12.
Bunch sprinting is one of the most dangerous and tactically intricate moments in cycling. This segment prepares you to watch Stages 7 and 8 intelligently — understanding what you are seeing when 150 riders converge at 70 km/h in the final 200 metres.
The mountains produce the Tour's most powerful heroic narratives — the lone attacker, the suffering climber, the dramatic abandon. But who gets to be a hero, on what terms, and whose body is centred in those narratives? This module examines how the Tour constructs heroism and what that construction excludes — historically and today.
The Tour has always been a race about France — its geography, its identity, its idea of itself. But it has also always included foreign riders, political protesters, and competing nationalisms. This module asks who the Tour is for, who it excludes, and what happens when that exclusion is contested.
The Alps. The race is in full swing — the GC battle is crystallizing, the mountains are relentless, and mid-race is historically when controversy surfaces. This week addresses the ethical and political dimensions of the Tour head-on. Project proposal due Thursday July 16.
Mountain stages are where the Tour is won and lost. This segment explains what you are watching — attacks, tempo riding, domestiques sacrificed on the slopes, time gaps managed to the second over three weeks of racing.
Doping is woven into the Tour's history — but it is not the whole story. Cycling is now the most tested sport in the world, and the landscape has changed dramatically since the Armstrong era. This module situates doping within its structural and institutional context, treating it as a symptom of broader forces rather than a matter of individual moral failure.
The Tour passes through hundreds of towns and villages, temporarily transforming public space into spectacle. It has also been a stage for political protest — labour movements, regional independence campaigns, environmental activists, anti-racism actions. This module examines the Tour as a contested spatial and political event.
The final mountain passes, the penultimate time trial, and the ceremonial finale on the Champs-Élysées. The yellow jersey is almost certainly decided. The caravan reaches its apotheosis. This week closes the analytical arc of the course — from how the race works to what it means, and what it costs. Reflection 2 due Sunday July 26.
The individual time trial — the contre-la-montre, or "race of truth" — is the antithesis of the peloton: one rider, alone, against the clock. And the final stage into Paris is the antithesis of the time trial: a ritualized procession followed by a sprint, one of sport's great theatrical conventions.
The Tour de France is simultaneously a private company, a media product, a global brand, and a moving advertisement. This module examines how it became one of the world's most commercially successful sporting events — and what that transformation has meant for the race, for cycling, and for the towns it passes through.
The Tour has generated one of the richest bodies of cultural commentary of any sporting event — from Barthes's mythologies to contemporary cultural geography and environmental critique. This module closes the course by asking what the Tour means as a cultural object, and what its future looks like in an era of climate urgency.
The course is divided equally between ongoing formative work (50%) and a final research project (50%). The formative work is designed so that it can only be completed through genuine engagement with the race as it unfolds — not in advance, and not by proxy.
Summary: Quizzes 20% · Forums 10% · Reflections 20% · Project proposal 10% · Final project 40%
Each weekly quiz has two parts. The first covers the week's assigned readings. The second is anchored to stages that have already completed that week, asking you to connect course concepts to what is currently unfolding in the race.
The live-race component means quizzes cannot be completed in advance — the answers depend on events that haven't happened yet. This is by design. Following the race daily is part of the work.
Quizzes consist of multiple-choice, true/false, and matching questions, and are graded automatically. Each quiz opens once sufficient race stages have completed and closes at the end of the week. Exact opening times are posted on BrightSpace and @tdf325.
Forum prompts are posted after a stage finishes — not at the start of the week. You cannot write your response in advance because the prompt didn't exist yet. You typically have 36–48 hours to post.
Each forum has two components. Your initial post (minimum 75 words) must name a specific stage or event from the current Tour and connect it explicitly to at least one named idea from that week's readings or viewings. Your response post (minimum 25 words) must engage with a specific claim a classmate made — not just express general agreement. Both components are expected; partial credit is available if only one is completed.
Once per unit, you may submit — and may occasionally be invited to submit — a short voice memo or video (60–90 seconds) in place of a written post. A spontaneous reaction to a stage finish, a brief reflection recorded while watching, a conversation with a fellow fan. The same criteria apply as for written posts.
Reflections are the most open-ended component of the formative work. They ask you to step back from the weekly pace of the race and the readings and think across what you've been learning, watching, and noticing. Length: approximately 400–600 words, or equivalent in another format (audio, video, annotated images) agreed upon with the instructor.
You have now watched a full week of the Tour and engaged with the first two course modules. This reflection asks you to:
The Tour ends today. This reflection asks you to look back across the full arc of the race and the course:
The final project is due one week after Reflection 2. This is intentional: the reflection is a thinking-through moment, not a conclusion. Your project has room to develop further.
The research project is the culminating work of the course. It is due one week after the final stage, giving you time to absorb the full arc of the 2026 Tour before completing your analysis.
The project is intentionally open in format and disciplinary approach. Students from all faculties are welcome to work in modes appropriate to their field and interests. Whatever format you choose, the work must engage substantively with at least two course readings, address something specific that happened during the 2026 Tour, and reflect your own intellectual perspective. It must also include a process note (see below).
One page maximum. Your proposal should include:
The proposal is graded on seriousness of engagement and clarity of direction, not polish. It is the start of a conversation with the instructor, not a contract.
You may submit any of the following, or propose an alternative in your project proposal:
Alternative formats are assessed with the same intellectual rigour as traditional papers. The mode of expression changes; the depth of engagement does not.
All submissions — regardless of format — must include a process note of 300–500 words (or spoken equivalent for audio/video projects). This is not a summary of your project. It is a brief account of how the work developed:
The process note is folded into the project grade. It is often where the learning becomes most visible.
This course treats writing — and creative and analytical work more broadly — as a process, not just a product. What you produce matters; how you got there matters more.
Generative AI tools are not prohibited in this course because they are new or threatening. They are poorly suited to it because they bypass the process that is the point. A language model cannot watch Stage 14 and feel the tension in the peloton on the final climb. It cannot connect what it read last Tuesday to what happened this morning. It cannot bring a genuine disciplinary perspective, a personal curiosity, or a question it has been carrying for three weeks. That is what your work is supposed to do.
Concretely: the quizzes, forums, and reflections in this course are designed so that they cannot be completed without genuine real-time engagement with the race. The final project requires you to address something specific that happened during the 2026 Tour, from your own intellectual position, with a traceable process note. These features are not obstacles — they are the course.
This course is guided by the principles of the CCCC/MLA joint task force on writing and AI. In practice, that means:
The use of generative AI to produce submitted work constitutes a breach of academic integrity under UVic policy (unauthorized use of an editor) and will be treated accordingly. Students are encouraged to read the full UVic Academic Integrity policy. Questions about any specific use are welcome — ask before you submit, not after.
Incomplete (N): Students who have not completed at least 80% of assigned work may receive an N at the instructor's discretion. Forum participation is essential to success in this course.
This course follows UVic policy in accommodating students registered with the Centre for Accessible Learning (CAL). The instructor will scrupulously adhere to all CAL-required accommodations. In order to treat all students equitably, accommodations beyond those mandated by CAL cannot be provided on request.
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