If football and rugby have been forced to end their season, other competitions may be held provided they are postponed. This is the case of the Tour de France cycling race, which will start on August 29. But for the runners, the preparation promises to be restrictive with all the rules of physical distance to be respected.

The peloton regains some color. Unless the situation changes, French cyclists will be able to leave the exercise bike in favor of the roads in their department. As of May 11, the date of the gradual end to confinement linked to the coronavirus, Edouard Philippe has indeed announced that the French will be able to travel up to 100 kilometers from home. Life-size training will resume for lovers of the little queen with one objective: the Tour de France. The postponed competition will start on August 29 in Nice and will end on September 20 on the cobblestones of the Champs-Elysées.

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The challenge of the preparatory races

Constraints persist, however. In addition to a training area reduced to 100 kilometers around their home, runners must respect a distance of at least 10 meters between them. Then, to prepare for the best, they must be able to ride during preparation competitions, essential before an event as demanding as the Great Loop. The Ministry of Sports has already specified that these preparatory races will not take place before August.

For Marc Madiot, manager of the Groupama-FDJ team and president of the professional cycling league, these pre-Tour de France races should not be overlooked. "We have a pyramid," he explains, "the base is training, and a priori it should go from May 11. The second floor is the preparatory races. And the tip of the pyramid is the Tour de France. If one floor is missing, we cannot do the other two, "he explains, arguing that this schedule must be respected for the smooth running of the Tour.

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"It therefore remains to clarify the situation of the races in August so as not to go beyond the limit of 5,000 people," he concludes. This gauge fixed by the government for the demonstrations is for the moment supposed to apply until the re-entry. In this case, in addition to the preparation races in August, the start of the Tour de France, which will start in the city of Nice, would be affected by this constraint.