Tour de France in veil. Even the winner of the seventh stage of the Tour Wout Van Aert had to put it over his nose and mouth.
Christophe Petit-Tesson, ČTK / AP
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From a racing point of view, nothing could be said at the end of the first week of the Tour. In the fresh wind, the peloton made its way through the lavender-scented south to the Pyrenees, the overall order was scattered over several attractive hills, and all of France was debating whether a penalty for Alaphilipp, who stripped the pet from the yellow jersey after the fifth act, was necessary.
But in the background of all the circus, you can feel that even the powerful magic of the most famous race on the planet cannot put the Tour out of the global context. “Here, the road would normally be littered with fans that we would have trouble driving,” former Spanish professional Pedro Horrillo waves his hand at the sporadically occupied curbs of the first category ascent to the Col de la Lusette, which spiced up the end of the sixth stage.
There are only a fraction of fans this year along the track compared to previous years.
Thibault camus, ČTK / AP
At the end of the week, we intertwined with the two-time Old Lady participant in a peloton on board the car of the main sponsor of the race, and the observations of a 45-year-old native of Ebas, Basque Country, who is already a traditional escort of the Škoda Auto team, were apt.
Bidon deprived Alaphilippa of the lead. Yates had to take a yellow jersey instead of taking a shower
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“The audience’s response is not recorded by the postponed date. July is traditionally a time of holidays and vacations and people are used to combining leisure with the Tour. It’s different in September. In addition, due to the measures, the contact of the racers with the fans is completely limited, people could forget about the popular autograph signings this year, “Horrillo points out one of the necessary novelties of this year.
“Not much has changed for the competitors, they have to give performance anyway. But there are few spectators, and that’s where the Tour stands, “shrugged 2010 winner Andy Schleck before the start of the sixth episode at Le Teile, looking at the almost empty square under the podium to introduce the individual teams.” But when you look at the matter from a broader perspective … It was definitely important to organize the Tour, to give people a signal that we are starting to live again, “says the 35-year-old Luxembourgian.
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Even fans of the Tour de France wear veils.
Benoit Tessier, Reuters
At the last moment before the start, Schleck himself accepted the idea that this year – for the first time since World War II – he would not have to step on the pedals at all at the Old Lady. “Until I was in Nice, I didn’t take anything for granted. One looked at the internet every morning and checked what was happening in France, the United States, Britain … In fact, I was more prepared not to go, “he says openly.
Organizers have introduced a system of two bubbles, the racing and the rest of the world, to eliminate the spread of coronavirus across the peloton. The symbol of the Tour has become the veil that the winner of the stage puts out immediately after the finish. If two members of one team have a positive test, the whole ensemble must leave the carousel. And this rule now scares all participants quite a bit. The idea that there will be a positive team of maillot jaune owners just before Paris …
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The phenomenal spurt Peter Sagan also waved to the fans with a veil on his face.
Benoit Tessier, ČTK / AP
“If that happened, the result would be historically of no value at all, and I wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of a racer whose yellow jersey would fall into his lap. The rules are the rules, but everyone wants to win the triumph on the track, “muses Schleck, who had to come to terms with the fact that he didn’t get the winning trophy under the Arc de Triomphe, but only two years after the Albert Contador doping affair.
So while a handful of spectators in the 30-degree heat near the famous meanders of the Ardèche River with veils on their faces enthusiastically saluted the whistling peloton, in the background, at the end of the first week of the Tour, there was an unspoken question mark. “We’re going to the Old Lady in quotes, it’s definitely not the one we’re used to. For this year’s winner, there will forever be an imaginary footnote that it was the Tour de France covid-19. And still provided we get to Paris. On the other hand, it must be said that this year has not only changed the Tour, but each of us, “adds Horrillo, a former philosophy student.
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