Sex, drugs and the Tour

Twenty years ago punk rocker Johnny Green wrote a candid book about the Tour de France. He died in April aged 75

- 

Well fancy meeting you lot in here,’ Johnny Green says as he pulls up a chair in the celestial boozer, El Pan y Agua. ‘I was expecting to bump into Strummer and Vicious, not you bunch of old dopers.’

Marco Pantani frowns at him over his Campari and soda. ‘Technically, I was never found guilty of anything other than an abundance of swashbuckling bravado.’

‘You know you were the reason I became hooked on road cycling, don’tcha?’ says Green in his gruff, estuary accent. ‘Seeing you on TV glide over the Galibier during the ’98 Tour made my spine tingle. Like the first time I heard Joe and the boys play “London Calling”. Then I met Sheryl Crow when she was with Lance at the 2004 Tour and she told me that cycling “is more edgy and has more amazingly cool personalities than rock ’n’ roll.” You can’t argue with that.’

‘She must have been talking about me,’ smiles the slim figure with the streamlined nose and cropped blond hair sipping champagne.