Martin Lange / Photo credit: ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT / AFP 07:03, December 27, 2023

For a week, Europe 1 offers you a series of reports dedicated to jobs like no other. After the cartoonist and the wildlife photographer, focus this Wednesday on Christian Prudhomme, boss of the Tour de France. Our radio followed him for 24 hours, during the presentation of the 2025 edition.

He is sometimes referred to as the boss of the month for July. For more than 17 years, Christian Prudhomme has been at the helm of one of the most followed sporting events on the planet: the Tour de France cyclist. Every morning, for a week, Europe 1 presents you with an atypical profession, which can also nurture big dreams. For this third episode, our radio followed the boss of the big loop, for 24 hours, during the presentation of the 2025 edition.

It was around 10:30 a.m. that day when he arrived in the majestic Charles-de-Gaulle Salon, in the premises of the Prefecture of the North, in Lille, from where the race would start in two years' time. Christian Prudhomme greeted all the elected officials present one by one, including Martine Aubry, the city councillor. Elected officials who never miss an opportunity to weave his praises. "Christian Prudhomme is the image of the Tour de France. It's: 'I taste the local products, I discover the cultural and beautiful side of the towns and villages I pass through'. It is the very embodiment of the Tour de France," said Damien Castelain, president of the Lille metropolis.

A media marathon

After slipping in a word or an anecdote for each of them, it's time for the big oral. "Hello everyone. The Tour is broadcast in 190 countries around the world. It highlights our cities, our departments, our regions, our landscapes, our heritage, our terroir," he said during a press conference that lasted about an hour.

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For Christian Prudhomme, who also lends himself to the photo game, the media marathon is far from over. "Thank you very much Christian Prudhomme, thank you for all the viewers," he can be heard saying. The boss of the Tour responds to local television, radio and even the foreign press. "I've never met so many journalists as I have since I'm no longer a journalist," he laughs.

While the watches indicate two o'clock in the afternoon, it's time to sit down to eat. "We're going to have an excellent lunch, I know that in advance with the president of the Departmental Council." No local speciality on the menu, but duck. In the middle of the afternoon, the boss of the Tour left the prefecture of Nord to set sail for neighbouring Belgium. That same evening, he is expected to attend a charity evening to fight against leukemia.