Bemoaning their country's poor fortunes in the Tour de France while scanning the horizon hopefully for the next big two-wheel wonder has become a Gallic pastime of late.
But the French have at least had the consolation that Belgium has had an equally bad time of it since the great Eddy Merckx hung up his wheels almost a quarter of a century ago. A Frenchman has not won the Tour since 1985, but the Belgians have to look back a further nine years, to Lucien van Impe's sole win.
Yesterday, however, the nation which is the butt of France's equivalent of the Irish joke bit back as the Tour paused briefly in Belgium's second city Antwerp.
All eyes were on the sprinter Tom Steels, but it was one of the country's unsung riders, Marc Wauters, who landed the stage win - ahead of France's Arnaud Pretot - and the yellow jersey, which he took from another Frenchman, Christophe Moreau.
"Beyond my wildest dreams," he said, and it was probably not the result Belgium expected either, as no Flamand or Walloon has worn the yellow jersey since 1995. Sporting trivia it may be, but the last Belgian in yellow was the tight-lipped Johan Bruyneel, who now manages Lance Armstrong's US Postal Service team.
As the same westerly wind that ripped the peloton apart on Sunday at Cap Gris Nez whisked the riders eastwards across Flanders through massive crowds at a touch under 30mph, there were no signs singing Wauters' praises, although his record is solid enough: four minor stage-race wins.
The lack of support is nothing to do with the fact that Wauters rides for a Dutch team, Rabobank. It is simply that it will be Wauters's turn tomorrow, when the race passes through his native town of Lummel, 65k into the stage.
"I hope we are not racing," he said yesterday, "then I will be able to go and say hello to my wife and child." The local rider receiving permission from the "heads" of the bunch to ride ahead and stop briefly to kiss his wife and child is one of the great Tour traditions which has died something of a death in recent years.
To make yesterday doubly frustrating for the French, the yellow jersey looked predestined for the Credit Agricole team, who placed four riders in the decisive 16-man escape, launched by Wauters and his team-mate Erik Dekker. Stuart O'Grady of Australia, lying eighth overall, was one of the quartet, so his team-mates rode like men possessed to put him in place.
They had, however, reckoned without Wauters, who evaded "Stuey" in the final metres to pick up the bonus seconds on offer to the winner.
