The Tour de France modifies for the first time its protocol and promises a man and a woman to put the jerseys back on the finish podiums, putting an end to the traditional "miss", a practice considered sexist. It was its director, Christian Prudhomme, who announced it in a sentence in which he presented the health instructions for the start of the Grande Boucle in Nice on August 29.
"A hostess and a host, for the first time"
"You used to see the champion surrounded by two hostesses, with five elected on one side and five representatives of the partners on the other. There, it will be different with only one elected and one representative of the partner of the yellow jersey , as well as a hostess and a host for the first time, ”he said at a press conference. "Yes, it's new but we have already been doing it in other races for 20 years as in Liège-Bastogne-Liège", organized like the Tour de France by Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), added Christian Prudhomme.
In 2018, another world class race organized by ASO, the Flèche Wallonne, had opted for a mixed podium, a man to reward the winner and a woman for the winner. Christian Prudhomme did not specify whether they also put an end to the tradition of "kissing" the winner, but the health context seems to have got the better of this other decried practice anyway.
"Not objects, not rewards"
For several years, voices have been raised regularly to demand the end of podium hostesses. A petition in 2019 even collected nearly 38,000 signatures, believing that women "are not objects, not rewards". Formula 1 had it put an end in 2018 to the "grid girls", these young women, chosen for their plastic, who indicate the location of the single-seaters.