The Grand Départ should have been given on the Promenade des Anglais on Saturday. But the Tour de France 2020, turned upside down by the Covid-19 pandemic, would not take place as usual between June and July. It will leave Nice, but on August 29 and will end on September 20. In this particular context, the Great Loop will have a “singular” taste this year, predicts Christian Prudhomme.
Safety measures, reception of the public, provisions for the riders… Two months before this offbeat race, the owner of the Tour de France takes stock.
Can we be certain, today, that the dates of the Tour de France will not change anymore?
We realized in late March / early April that we had to change the dates of the tour. But you can still put a question mark on absolutely everything. We can doubt everything. I will give you the words that Jean Casteix, the deconfinement gentleman of the government with whom we have regular meetings, told me a few weeks ago: "you can be reasonably optimistic". Today, I am resolutely optimistic. The situation in France has improved significantly.
What will the Great Departure from Nice look like?
We had a lot of meetings with communities and with the city of Nice with whom we have almost daily contact. If we were at the start of the tour this Saturday, I will tell you that in our spaces everyone will have masks. Whether it will be the case in two months or not, I don't know. However, we are working with the authorities to have a sort of bubble around the runners. Obviously, 2020 will not be the best year to get autographs. We are working on two hypotheses in fact: an almost liberated Tour de France and another which would be less so with places where only a certain number of people would pass. A gauge system for the public prevails today, I don't know if it will be maintained in two months. In the idea, it will be necessary to respect the barrier gestures. There will also be many more barriers around the team buses. And there will be filtering. But the change of dates will have a considerable influence anyway. In September, people are working and there will be far fewer foreign spectators when they are up to 50% normally in the passes. We will be there to remind you of the barrier measures, but we must not forget that the first risk on the Tour de France is the road risk.
Will the health system be different at each stage, depending on the prefects' decisions?
No, we obviously asked for a hat order so that there were the same rules in all departments. We will be on something very concrete at the beginning of August, four weeks before the start of Tour.
Can the course be further modified?
Logically not. There have already been adjustments in a number of steps. Because we were arriving at a college, because the press center was in a gymnasium or because we had to cross a big city. In Lyon for example, we cut 3 km in the city. This is what the authorities asked us in each step.
Can feedback from the Dauphiné (from 12 to 16 August) help you to complete your organization?
Naturally. Especially since we will be fifteen days from the Tour de France. We will always have this ability to tighten up the system depending on what the authorities can tell us. But it will never be a closed-door tour. Never, never, never.
With less people, this tour would have a special atmosphere…
It's going to be a singular tour. I also hope that it will be unique and that we will be back in July from 2021. It is a Tour that is going to be incredibly awaited anyway because there is a thirst for events. It will undoubtedly be the first major sporting event to be organized again, a week after the restart of the L1. It will be an even bigger turn for the champions and the teams. What struck me in all the meetings that we could do remotely was the expectation of having, in any case, a Tour this year. Everyone told us "we need the dates of the Tour to organize the rest of the season".
Are you going to reduce the canopy of the event?
The airfoil will be reduced by itself. The tour will still be broadcast around the world, but a certain number of programs will not be there. SBS Australians and NBC Americans, for example, will not have their plateau. And, moreover, the caravan will be 40% less a priori. We will still have a hundred vehicles and 18 tanks. But companies are not immune to the crisis.
For foreign runners, will there be a quarantine period imposed?
The sports ministry and the authorities asked us for fifteen days to have a list of the runners and the people who would come on the tour. They just want to know if they come from Europe or not. For example, we have a plane that must arrive from Colombia in the second half of July, with the biggest Colombian runners including Egan Bernal and Nairo Quintana. They will arrive early enough to eventually have to undergo a quarantine. The authorities ask them to arrive earlier.
In September, temperatures could be lower. Can it create surprises?
There are indeed real sports questions. First of all, the fact that everyone's preparation has been turned upside down. Also because depending on the month of the year, some perform and others do not. The temperature, even if it can still be very hot, can obviously affect runners. There may also be more wind that can move the lines.
Deconfinement
Gyms, Ligue 1, Tour de France… What will change in the world of sport
Coronavirus
The spirit of the Tour will be the same ”, believes its director Christian Prudhomme
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