Great French terms of cycling...

BigSpecs
BigSpecs Posts: 309
edited April 2009 in Pro race
I have just blogged about this for a bit of fun (see below for link). I have included my favourites but what are yours? I am sure there must be some good ones I have missed...
Cheers,
Col.

Comments

  • robmanic1
    robmanic1 Posts: 2,150
    Souplesse - Is my fave, think about this when I'm peddling, helps improve my technique I reckon.

    Also "rouleur" suites my riding style (and geographic location).

    Damn those Frenchies!
    Pictures are better than words because some words are big and hard to understand.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/34335188@N07/3336802663/
  • pat1cp
    pat1cp Posts: 766
    chapeu
    http://tinyurl.com/332edp
    http://tinyurl.com/2nu7r3
  • DaveyL
    DaveyL Posts: 5,167
    Chute!
    Le Blaireau (1)
  • disgruntledgoat
    disgruntledgoat Posts: 8,957
    Casquette

    Cuiller I love... as in "je suis cuiller!"

    Lanterne Rouge

    finesseur
    "In many ways, my story was that of a raging, Christ-like figure who hauled himself off the cross, looked up at the Romans with blood in his eyes and said 'My turn, sock cookers'"

    @gietvangent
  • micron
    micron Posts: 1,843
    attaque - self explanatory :wink:
    il est lache - he's been dropped
    raccrocher - to get back on after being dropped
  • mididoctors2
    mididoctors2 Posts: 96
    english (not yank) terms are better
  • Crapaud
    Crapaud Posts: 2,483
    disgruntledgoat wrote:
    ...cuiller I love... as in "je suis cuiller!" ...
    I am a spoon? (According to my Roberts) You'll need to explain this one. :?

    It couldn't be a typo and you meant 'cueillir': to pick or nab, as in, "Il s'est fait cuellir par la police." - He was nabbed by the police.?
    A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject - Churchill
  • cygnet
    cygnet Posts: 92
    Puncheur
    _____________________
    I'm part of the association!
  • disgruntledgoat
    disgruntledgoat Posts: 8,957
    Crapaud wrote:
    disgruntledgoat wrote:
    ...cuiller I love... as in "je suis cuiller!" ...
    I am a spoon? (According to my Roberts) You'll need to explain this one. :?

    It couldn't be a typo and you meant 'cueillir': to pick or nab, as in, "Il s'est fait cuellir par la police." - He was nabbed by the police.?

    Ah, Pardon!

    I, of course, meant to say Cuit, as in cooked.

    And me livign with a french teacher... tsk tsk
    "In many ways, my story was that of a raging, Christ-like figure who hauled himself off the cross, looked up at the Romans with blood in his eyes and said 'My turn, sock cookers'"

    @gietvangent
  • takethehighroad
    takethehighroad Posts: 6,812
    As an aside, how many people on here speak French? I mean full on can talk, read newspapers etc?

    I'm studying it at uni and my passion came from the Tour de France, and cycling in general.
  • disgruntledgoat
    disgruntledgoat Posts: 8,957
    TakeTheHighRoad wrote:
    As an aside, how many people on here speak French? I mean full on can talk, read newspapers etc?

    I'm studying it at uni and my passion came from the Tour de France, and cycling in general.

    I think i've just conclusively proved I can't... That said I did survive there for 4 months at a time back in my early 20s and I never starved or slept rough so I must have been doing something right. As for reading, I can get through L'Equipe with much headscratching, my written frech is dreadful.
    "In many ways, my story was that of a raging, Christ-like figure who hauled himself off the cross, looked up at the Romans with blood in his eyes and said 'My turn, sock cookers'"

    @gietvangent
  • knedlicky
    knedlicky Posts: 3,097
    There are lots of slang phrases and idioms used in the French cycling world. My French isn’t that bad but when newspaper articles are written with a lot of idioms, or riders are quoted who talk in slang, I sometimes get lost. And at cyclosportives in France you sometimes encounter riders who ‘talk the talk’, until they realise you (as a foreigner) just can’t follow them.

    However, I doubt all French people know the cycling idioms either.
    Here are some which I’ve heard (if anyone knows different about my interpretations, please correct me):

    ‘borne’ (literally: point) = kilometer

    'être un client' (to be a client) = to be a quality rider (not a customer of Fuentes! )

    ‘faire une bordure’ (to make a border) = when there’s a cross-wind, to ride on the side of the road away from the direction the wind is coming from – this prevents following riders getting any shelter from the wind by following you; you would ride on the other side of the road if working together (Hinault was good at such tactics)

    'faire le drapeau' (to make the flag) = to follow in someone’s slipstream and never take a turn upfront

    'poser un sac' (to ask a bag) = to accelerate suddenly

    'passer les bosses' (to cross the bumps) = to climb the mountains well

    ‘pédaler avec les oreilles’ (to pedal with one’s ears) = to be tired (especially on hills where tired riders waggle from side to side, so from ear to ear)

    'se refaire la cerise' (to recover the cherry) = to regenerate whilst still underway, after an earlier weaker or failing moment

    The verb used when struggling temporarily is ‘coincer’ (to stick). If the failing moment is not temporary, but lasting, ‘sauter’ (to skip) is used to describe ‘blowing up’, or ‘exploser’ if it happened drastically and suddenly.

    'être scotché ' (to be taped) = to not ride at one’s best

    'être à la campagne' (to be in the countryside) = to be dropped

    'être en chasse-patate' (to be like a hunted sweet potato) – to be between the leading group and the peloton with no chance of catching the leading group

    ‘mettre la flèche’ (to place the arrow) = to abandon.
    I've also heard the verb ‘bacher’ as meaning to abandon, as in ‘il a baché’ (he’s abandoned). I've no idea what bacher might really mean.
  • Crapaud
    Crapaud Posts: 2,483
    knedlicky wrote:
    ... I've also heard the verb ‘bacher’ as meaning to abandon, as in ‘il a baché’ (he’s abandoned). I've no idea what bacher might really mean.
    Some good stuff there ned! :lol:

    Bâcher: (verb, transitive) to cover with a canvas sheet.

    Bâche: (noun, feminine) canvas cover (de piscine (swimming pool))

    ie. to shut up shop; give in
    A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject - Churchill
  • blazing_saddles
    blazing_saddles Posts: 22,711
    contre-la-montre: Which is the worst possible occasion to suffer a crevaison.
    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • Crapaud
    Crapaud Posts: 2,483
    Blazing Saddles wrote:
    contre-la-montre: Which is the worst possible occasion to suffer a crevaison.
    Merde alors! Mon pneu a éclaté! :lol:
    A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject - Churchill
  • leguape
    leguape Posts: 986
    poser un sac is to put down a bag ie drop the shopping/luggage and get serious

    scotché is collé which is literally "stuck"

    Good list here: http://www.gibello.com/publi/vocabulairecycliste.html

    borne is an old french term for milestone from the days when you got the little stone markers beside the road.

    chasse-patate is a pointless pursuit hence being stuck between two groups, much like the echappé bidon which is a break that will never succeed. I've always guessed that the bidon part alludes to the break lasting as long as it takes to drink one.
    http://www.atomicecho.com/cycling
  • disquieting_museeuws
    disquieting_museeuws Posts: 601
    'Depart Fictif' - the start of a race in a neutralised zone

    'Playing the Accordian' [don't know the correct French] - yo-yoing off the back of the bunch
  • teagar
    teagar Posts: 2,100
    Isn't there one about a bottle of mustard... :?
    Note: the above post is an opinion and not fact. It might be a lie.
  • knedlicky
    knedlicky Posts: 3,097
    Crapaud wrote:
    Bâcher: (verb, transitive) to cover with a canvas sheet, i.e. to shut up shop; give in
    leguape wrote:
    poser un sac is to put down a bag ie drop the shopping/luggage and get serious
    Thanks for the clarifications; they sound good.
    knedlicky wrote:
    'être scotché ' (to be taped) = to not ride at one’s best
    leguape wrote:
    scotché is collé which is literally "stuck"
    When I once suggested to a French acquaintance ‘scotché’ might have to do with Scotch Tape, a sort of Franglais, he was adamant it wasn’t, but couldn’t suggest an alternative derivation. But I think that must be the derivation (not that one has had too much whisky to drink underway!).
    teagar wrote:
    Isn't there one about a bottle of mustard
    Maybe a variation of the American phase 'to cut the mustard'? (meaning ‘to strive for a satisfactory performance’). Around Dijon is still a big mustard-growing area, so it’s possible such an idiom exists in French.
  • teagar
    teagar Posts: 2,100
    knedlicky wrote:
    teagar wrote:
    Isn't there one about a bottle of mustard
    Maybe a variation of the American phase 'to cut the mustard'? (meaning ‘to strive for a satisfactory performance’). Around Dijon is still a big mustard-growing area, so it’s possible such an idiom exists in French.

    It's a mustard sandwich (in French) I think, having thought about it a bit more. Sorry. Slang for amphetemines in the '60s. Apparantly during Kermises riders would pass the start/finish line asking for one....

    I think...!
    Note: the above post is an opinion and not fact. It might be a lie.
  • Kléber
    Kléber Posts: 6,842
    micron wrote:
    il est lache - he's been dropped
    That means "he's a coward", it's an adjective. You need the verb, "lacher", il est laché, to mean he's dropped.

    - Avoir les fourmis dans les jambes - "to have ants in your legs", to be feeling frisky, ready to attack.
    - Péter le feu du diable - "farting the devil's own fire", to be on form.
    - Mouliner - "to mill", to pedal smoothly.

    I breezed GCSE French largely thanks to a keen interest in reading Vélo Mag and Miroir du Cyclisme and have picked up Italian and Spanish from cycling too. This year my Dutch is getting a lot better thanks to Sporza and Nederland1. If you can understand French, the podcast on http://www.lequipe.fr/Cyclisme/index.html, Carrément Vélo is lively stuff.

Categories