Shifted in September, the largest cycling race in the world will take place “in an adapted manner”, explains Christian Prudhomme, with a reduced caravan.
Less than two months from the start of the Tour de France 2020, which will start on August 29 from Nice, and will end on the Champs-Élysées on September 20, the director of the Tour de France, Christian Prudhomme, ensures “there will be people by the roadside”, despite the forced postponement of his trial due to the coronavirus epidemic. He also announced solidarity partnerships with Emmaüs and Secours populaire.
franceinfo: How does it feel to tell you that the Tour de France will be the first major world sporting event of the year?
Christian Prudhomme : It is something strong. I think there is a real expectation of people to see the champions fight again. There is also an expectation from the champions. The Tour is the biggest cycling race in the world, it’s still the big meeting, but there, more than ever. All champions must succeed in their Tour, it is almost compulsory. Sometimes also for the survival of their team, because the partners come mainly to see their teams and their riders compete in the Tour de France. So we are well aware of this responsibility.
Obviously the Tour de France will take place in an adapted manner, according to the instructions.at franceinfo
But it’s going to be a Tour de France which is also a celebration and, in a way, a rebirth. Find a world where you are a little more free again.
We can still hope to see the greatest world cycling champions, the caravan, the public by the roads?
The greatest champions, without a doubt. The caravan will be smaller, there will be fewer vehicles. But it must be there. And, yes, there will be people by the roadside. The Tour is much more than the largest cycling race in the world. It’s history, it’s geography. This allows all audiences to escape, to escape. People who are sick, old people who are in retirement homes … They see the Tour, they see the beauty of France, the enhancement of our territories, our soils. We have a beautiful country! What strikes me in recent years is to see that more and more people are proud to welcome the Tour, everywhere. People always say thank you on the Tour route. Because the Tour has very deep roots in our country. We all have a memory of the Tour. To have gone there with his parents, with his cousins, his brothers and sisters, his grandparents, with his friends. And beyond sport! You have people by the roadside who don’t know the names of the champions. But the Tour is here, and I said it in March: only the World War, twice, prevented the unfolding of the Tour de France.
If something prevents the Tour de France from running, it means that the country is in bad shape. And we cannot wish it.at franceinfo
It was not for everyone, including communities, while France was plunged into the Covid crisis, to leave with you anyway…
Tuesday April 14, I took my phone and I called all the elected officials of the Tour. So they all said yes on the same day. We always hoped to have the Tour, but we realized at some point, at the end of March, that we had to shift the dates. And we got started as late as possible. It was actually the last free Sunday before the road world championship, Sunday September 27. And we will still be formally in the summer, since it will end on September 20.
This year you are also launching the solidarity Tour de France …
Yes, with Secours populaire, the Cycling Happiness Days. There, there will be around twenty meetings with 400 bikes which will be given to 400 kids from the Secours populaire.
There will also be a collection operation on the stages of the Tour de France, with Emmaüs, to offer people to donate their bikes, which will be retyped.at franceinfo
We hope to recover as much as possible so that those who cannot afford a bicycle can do so. We defend the bicycle in all its forms: the bicycle of champions, but also the bicycle of everyday life. Because it is a source of good health, because it is a source of freedom, of discovery and that it is very useful. And we want the Tour de France, too, to be useful.
