Shifted in the month of September, the biggest cycling race in the world held “appropriately”, says Christian Prudhomme, with a caravan reduced.Christian Prudhomme, director of the Tour de France. (FRANCEINFO / RADIOFRANCE)
Less than two months of the grand départ of the Tour de France 2020, which will start on August 29, from Nice, to end on the Champs-Élysées on September 20, the director of the Tour de France, Christian Prudhomme, ensures “that there will be in the world at the edge of the roads”, despite the lag forced of her ordeal because of the outbreak of coronavirus. It also announces partnerships in solidarity with Emmaüs and the Secours populaire.
franceinfo : what is this you have done it, to tell you that the Tour de France will be the first big event world sportsman of the year ?
Christian Prudhomme : It’s something strong. I think there is a real expectation of people to see the champions again fight. There is also an expectation of champions. The Tour is the biggest cycling race in the world, it is always great meeting you, but now, more than ever. All champions must pass their Turn, it is almost mandatory. Sometimes also for the survival of their team, because the partners come primarily to see their teams and their riders compete in the Tour de France. Therefore, we are well aware of this responsibility.
Of course, that the Tour de France, will take place in appropriate manner according to the instructions.Christian Prudhomme, director of Tour de Franceà franceinfo
But it’s going to be a Tour de France, which is also the feast and, to some extent, the renaissance. To return to a world where there is again a little more free.
We can still hope to see the greatest cycling champions in the world, the caravan, the audience at the edge of the roads ?
The greatest champions, no doubt. The caravan, it will be less important, there will be fewer vehicles. But it must be there. And, yes, there will be people at the edge of the roads. The Tour is much more than the greatest cycle race in the world. It is history, it is geography. This allows all audiences to escape, to escape. People who are ill, elders who are in the retirement homes…They see the Tower, they see the beauty of France, the development of our territories, of our soils. It was a beautiful country ! What strikes me these last few years, it is to see that more and more people are proud to be hosting the Tour, everywhere. People tell me thank you on the road to the Tower permanently. Because the Tour has roots very deep in our country. We all have a souvenir of the Tour. Be went with his parents, with his cousins, his brothers and sisters, his grandparents, with his friends. And beyond the sport ! You have people on the roads who do not know the names of the champions. But the Tower is there, and I had said in the month of march : only the world War, on two occasions, has prevented the running of the Tour de France.
If something is preventing the progress of the Tour de France, it means that the country is in bad shape. And you can’t want that.Christian Prudhommeà franceinfo
This was not won for the whole world, including for the communities, while France was plunged into the crisis of the Covid, to go with you anyway…
Tuesday, April 14, I took my phone and I called all the elected representatives of the Tour. They have, therefore, all have said yes in the same day. We always hoped to have the Tower, but we realized at a given time, at the end of march, that it was necessary to shift the dates. And we started late as possible. It was, in fact, that the last Sunday free before the world championship on road, on Sunday 27 September. And people will still be formally in the summer, since this is going to end on 20 September.
You start also this year the Tour de France in solidarity…
Yes, with the Secours populaire, the Days of happiness on a bike. There will be a twenty appointment with 400 bicycles that will be given to 400 children from the Secours populaire.
There will also be a collection operation on the stages of the Tour de France, with Emmaus, to propose to people to give their bikes, which will be retapés.Christian Prudhomme, director of Tour de Franceà franceinfo
We hope to be able to recover a maximum for those who do not have the means to buy a bike to be able to do. We stand for the bicycle in all its forms : the bike of the champions, but also the bicycle in everyday life. Because it is the source of good health, because it is the source of freedom, of discovery, and that it is very useful. And that we wish that the Tour de France, also, is useful.
