Nice (AFP)

The Tour de France 2020 begins Saturday in Nice in a department classified in the red zone due to the coronavirus, with a first stage of 156 kilometers favorable to sprinters.

The number of spectators has been reduced to a minimum and the wearing of a mask has been made compulsory for the kick-off of this decidedly very special 107th edition, following a prefectural decision made Thursday.

Two ministers, Jean-Michel Blanquer and Roxana Maracineanu, in charge of Sports, are scheduled for the start which will be given near the Promenade des Anglais. Their arrival marks the importance given to one of the rare world sporting events that can take place in this year marked by the pandemic.

"It is the national authorities who decide," said Tour director Christian Prudhomme. In particular for the validation of the protocol announced Friday by the International Cycling Union (UCI) in the event of positive cases for Covid-19.

From two positive cases, a team, which lines up eight riders, incurs exclusion from the Tour. Suffice to say that the threat is likely to weigh as far as Paris and the expected arrival on the Champs-Elysées on September 20.

- The runners in their bubble -

The Colombian Egan Bernal, defending champion, and the Slovenian Primoz Roglic, the first two favorites with the Frenchman Thibaut Pinot, are like the other riders of the peloton. They entered a bubble of about 700 people who bring together the competitors and all those who are called upon to work with them (team management, officials).

The media must keep a distance and more, the public who will be deprived of selfies and runner autographs this year. For cycling, one of the most accessible sports, it's a revolution!

On the sporting side, there is also uncertainty. For the first time since the beginning of the era of the British team Ineos formerly Sky (seven victories since 2012), which left out two former winners (Froome and Thomas), a substantially equivalent power faces him.

Jumbo has built an armada of the same level around Roglic and his number 1 bis, the Dutchman Tom Dumoulin. If the two teams choose not to take risks and to nip in the bud any major offensive, the risk of a locked race does exist.

Bernal, the first South American to win the Tour last year, claims to have "still some back pain". "But I feel much better than in the Dauphiné where I was really in pain," said the young Colombian (23 years old).

He was inducted "absolute leader" by the boss of the Ineos team, Dave Brailsford, who however took care to call on the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz, the winner of the Giro 2019 recruited at the end of last year.

- Towards a first sprint -

Pinot expects to have to wait, he who carries the French hopes of climbing to the highest step of the podium in Paris ... thirty-five years after Bernard Hinault.

The Franc-Comtois of the Groupama-FDJ team is banking on the difficulties of the last 8 days with, as its summit, the unprecedented arrival of the Col de la Loze above Méribel (Savoie), at an altitude of more than 2300 meters . Before a time trial at home, on the slopes of La Planche des Belles Filles (Haute-Saône), in the penultimate stage.

During the first week, the course, very dynamic, multiplies the possibilities of attack at the option of a crossing of the south of France which passes by the Alps and the Cévennes before the Pyrenees the following weekend. The menu satisfies climbers, foremost among them the Andeans (Carapaz, Quintana, Lopez, Uran, Higuita and of course Bernal) as well as the Slovenian beginner Tadej Pogacar.

But, while waiting for the first passes of the Nice hinterland on Sunday which feed the declared ambitions of Julian Alaphilippe, the man who ignited the month of July 2019, it is the sprinters who are looking towards the first yellow jersey.

The Australian Caleb Ewan, winner three times last year, expects a sprint despite two climbs of the coast of Rimiez (5.8 km at 5.1%), listed in third category but at a distance from the 'arrival.

On the finish line, the Irishman Sam Bennett and the Italian Giacomo Nizzolo are also expected after a stage which risks encountering a storm.

"I'm coming to the Tour to win a stage or maybe more, I'm having the best season of my career," trumpets Nizzolo, who will be wearing his new European champion's jersey for the first time. The answer will be given at around 6:00 p.m. (4:00 p.m. GMT).

© 2020 AFP