Tour de France deemed "macho and polluting": Hollande calls for "avoiding bad controversies"

The comments of Grégory Doucet on the Tour de France do not cease to react.

The mayor of Lyon did not hesitate to denounce an event "macho and polluting".

For François Hollande, a supporter of the Tour de France, these are "bad polemics" which do not have to be and which divert real problems.

"This new world, I don't want it"

"It's an event where we are in front of magnificent races with runners who devote themselves", explains François Hollande.

The former president underlines that "the runners, they use their own energy. We can not say that they use fossil fuels".

But the criticism of Grégory Doucet mainly targets cars.

"There are cars following the caravan, there are many. But while the Tour is moving, the other cars cannot move ...", considers the former President of the Republic.

"Let us avoid bad polemics, let us be demanding", he recommends.

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"If there was no longer the Tour, what would whole families, audiences each time amazed by this competition think?" Asks François Hollande.

"They would think that we have passed to another time, another period. And this new world, I don't want it," he replies.

"The Tour must adapt to the requirements of our society"

However, François Hollande recognizes that some criticisms of the Tour are legitimate.

"There were quite legitimate remarks on the fact that there were only young women who handed over swimsuits. Today parity has been respected, even on the podium, it is a man, a woman, "he greets.

"The Tour must adapt to the requirements of our society", he pleads. 

However, there is no question of abandoning the Grande Boucle.

"Those who do not like it do not go, those who do not like it do not receive it. Nobody is obliged to host the Tour de France", slices the former President of the Republic.