A With only one week left before the Tour de France starts, the ASO company (organizer of the event) is revealing details of the protocol to apply so that the most important race on the cycling calendar can be held with the least possible shocks in the middle of the pandemic. To ensure that a cyclist gets dressed on September 20 in Paris, since the gala round they have decided to take a series of innovative decisions.
According to VeloNews, the participating teams that have two positives for COVID-19 will be excluded, according to a document that the organization has prepared on health security. The Tour specifies that “if two or more people from the same team show strongly suspicious symptoms or have tested positive for COVID-19, they will be excluded from the race.” The expulsion will apply when the two cases are registered within a period of seven days and the measure affects both the riders and the personnel of the team in question.
A COVID cell composed of 15 people will be present during the three weeks, as well as a mobile laboratory that will allow “to have results in a maximum period of two hours”. The UCI specified a few weeks ago that the runners will be checked twice before the start (six and three days before the race) and then during the two rest days. The new rule has created tension between the teams since until now, the squad went home if there were three positives in 7 days. The risk of not finishing is real.
There are many protocols for the equipment that are going to be activated, but there is one, which has to do with amateurs, which will throw unusual images at the ports. As MARCA has learned, the Tour plans to close access to the Hors Categorie by car, caravans and other motorized vehicles two days before the event passes there. A measure to avoid agglomerations in the climbs so classic, showy, but currently dangerous for the acceleration of infections. Cycling and walking will be free, but the beating is guaranteed.
The race wants to avoid fans overturning on the bikes of the cyclists, shouting at them in the neck, throwing water on their heads in moments of maximum tension or even giving them a little push to avoid the suffering of the slope of ports such as Marie Blanc or Tourmalet. The number of security officers will be greater. all with mask
The regulations require the use of masks before and after the stages, which include buses and team cars. These rules will also be adopted by fans and the media, holding the press conferences online. Only cyclists and qualified personnel will be able to access the parking area of the team bus before each stage. A mixed zone will be established for the media that will have to adopt social distancing measures. Masks will be mandatory for all employees in any career field.
The hotels where the runners and their teams will stay will also have to abide by rules. Each team will be kept in its plant, with controls to enter certain areas of the building.
This year ASO has decided that there will be no two hostesses on the podium at the end of each day. From this edition, there will be a man and a woman to proceed with the delivery of jerseys and trophies.
In general, anyone who does not respect the sanitary regulations that allow the Tour to be held, will be expelled from the race. This regulation is implemented to control a virus that, to this day, continues to leave many victims and whose increase in cases in France is multiplying every day.
Thus, if the spread of the virus experiences a significant increase in cases in the last days before the appointment starts, it will be the French Government who has the last word when it comes to giving the green light to the event. A bubble on wheels has been created so that the Tour, the most important cycling event of the year, will be able to dress a new champion in yellow for another summer. “We are facing one of our greatest challenges,” acknowledged Christian Prudhomme, head of the event.
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