In the midst of the Tour de France cycling tournament, French magazine Le Parisien published a story about former French President Nicolas Sarkozy in which he boasted of being such a strong cyclist that his own bodyguards couldn’t keep up with him. Said Sarkozy, “The policemen who join me have to train in July. Otherwise, even though good sportsmen, they would struggle to climb. And I won’t wait for them, it’s not in my temperament.” Accompanying the story was a cover photo of Sarkozy effortfully climbing a hill on his bike, without any bodyguards in sight. Weekly magazine Marianne, however, disputed his claims by publishing what they stated to be the original version of the photo, in which a bodyguard is seen at Sarkozy’s side keeping the pace without much effort at all.
