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A Tour de France like no other
PARIS, June 27, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Cycling’s Tour de France should have embarked
from the Mediterranean city of Nice this weekend, but the two-month coronavirus
delay will heighten the drama on a “unique edition”, race organiser Christian
Prudhomme has told AFP.
The breathtaking vistas, raucous pop-up campervan villages straddling mountain
summit finishes and charming French chateaux will all still be on the menu for
global television audiences, as will the party atmosphere for the millions of
roadside fans when the race starts at the end of August.
While the French custom of kissing in greeting will be barred, and social
distancing still practiced, the delay has shaken up the format adding a dose of
the unknown to an already cut-throat three-week race.
Proof of the race’s domestic popularity can be detected in the fact that France
put a swift end to its rugby and football seasons, but the general and political
will to go on with the cycling saw the Tour survive.
The epic 107th edition will now embark from Nice’s celebrated Promenade des
Anglais on August 29 and culminate with a dash around Paris’ cobbled Champs
Elysees on September 20.
“It will be as singular as it will be unique,” Prudhomme promises of what was
already a mouthwatering route through France’s five mountain ranges.
“A Tour has never embarked so late in the year. It’s still in summer, but outside
the school holidays,” says Prudhomme, who feels there may be fewer than the
usually expected 12 million roadside fans.
“The heat should be less intense,” he says of the sizzling temperatures that
facilitate the roadside and hilltop carnival atmosphere in July.
“There will be more wind too,” he says, adding to the chaos the crosswinds cause
on the race through some of France’s vast wheat plains, that will have long since
been harvested.
“There will be fewer fans, but it will still be a party,” he says.
— Bernal, Froome or Thomas —
The coronavirus has hit advertising and Prudhomme said that the publicity caravan
which precedes the passage of the race, throwing goodies to crowds who gather not
only for a fleeting glimpse of the peloton, but also the possibility of caps,
shirts, sweets and other free promotional gifts, will be 40 percent smaller.
The season shake up has put even more focus on the Tour this year and every big
gun in the armoury is being primed for Le Grande Boucle.
Team Ineos should line up with the last three winners in Chris Froome, Geraint
Thomas and Egan Bernal as co-captains.
Defending champion Bernal is training in his homeland where he told local media
he was out to win.
“If I’m in a position to win I won’t sacrifice my chances,” the 23-year-old
Colombian said, reportedly sparking Froome’s anger and reports he was about to
switch teams.
This could all be a smoke and mirrors strategy to take the heat off Bernal, and
Ineos’ chief rival Jumbo has also named three co-captains.
Some would say that the fact the Tour will even be raced is a victory in itself
and after the BBQs and beers across the five mountain ranges of the Alps, the
Massif Central, the Pyrenees, the Jura and the Vosges the winner will emerge at
the wonderfully named ‘La Planche des Belles Filles’ (bench of beautiful girls).
Back in October, Bernal’s jaw dropped as the challenging route’s finale was
unveiled, while beside him four-time champion Froome let a smile slip, seeing the
scene of his narrow 2012 triumph atop the steep summit which this year plays host
to a penultimate day individual time-trial.
Whoever emerges from the sunflowers and the chateaux wearing the yellow jersey
atop La Planche des Belles Filles, he will have won one of the most hotly
anticipated Tours in its 107 year history.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0901 hrs