The countdown is underway for next year's Olympic games in Paris, and next week marks one year until athletes head to France. The capital city is pulling out all the stops for these games, including an iconic cycling circuit that NEWSnet International correspondent Ryan Thompson had to try out.
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00:00 (orchestral music)
00:03 With a year to go until the Olympics come here to Paris,
00:06 the countdown to the games is now on.
00:08 Over the past few weeks,
00:10 organizers have been unveiling
00:11 how they're going to showcase the French capital
00:13 as the world's most beautiful sport venue
00:16 when the games come in 2024.
00:18 That includes volleyball under the Eiffel Tower,
00:21 swimming in the Seine River,
00:23 and a difficult cycling circuit here
00:25 in the hills of Montmartre.
00:26 (orchestral music)
00:30 France is no stranger to picturesque bike riding.
00:32 This, of course, is the country
00:34 that puts the Tour de France on every year,
00:37 whose finisher is crowned under the Arc de Triomphe.
00:39 Though Montmartre is here in the heart of Paris,
00:42 cyclists will have to climb roughly 10 miles
00:44 of incredibly narrow streets made of cobblestone,
00:47 and it gets harder.
00:48 On top of that, the incline is something to be fought with,
00:51 about a 6.5% grade going up.
00:55 To see if my Olympic chops could be ready in time for 2024,
00:59 I decided to check out a bike and give it a shot myself.
01:02 So clearly, I'm not the best cyclist in the world,
01:06 but the real challenge here will be moving ahead
01:08 and getting ahead during the circuit stages.
01:10 These are already incredibly narrow streets.
01:13 It's hard to imagine several dozen cyclists
01:16 all piling in here,
01:17 trying to get ahead of each other to the top.
01:19 To get to the highest point in Paris,
01:21 this time I'm using an electric bike,
01:23 but Olympians won't be so lucky.
01:25 When you finally reach the top,
01:28 you'll see the famed Sacre Coeur Basilica,
01:30 but also charming streets
01:32 that make this neighborhood a tourist favorite.
01:35 Many tourists, though,
01:36 have opted to get there via the funicular
01:38 and aren't sure they'd try biking up.
01:41 We took a lot of stairs and not so much the incline,
01:43 but yes, we had to stop at several points.
01:46 I don't know that I could do it myself.
01:48 How much would someone have to pay you right now
01:50 to actually convince you to get up to the top on a bicycle?
01:54 Um, the cost of this trip, maybe, yeah.
01:57 (laughing)
01:58 I would do it for the cost of the trip as well, yeah.
02:00 And despite the billion dollar price tag,
02:02 the city of lights is betting big
02:05 that next year's Olympics are worth every penny.
02:08 In Paris, France, I'm Ryan Thompson for Newsnet.
02:11 [BLANK_AUDIO]