"The Tour of Renewal". The expression often flourished in the nauseating wake of the Towers following the Festina affair. This time, it could take on its full meaning by accompanying a Great Loop which hopes to cross, if the health situation brings the hoped-for improvement, the roads of France from August 29 to September 20 (date of the beginning of… Roland-Garros in a calendar fall sportsman where everything that counts will try to shoehorn). The 107th edition of an event (initially scheduled from June 27 to July 19) which was only interrupted by the wars, the last major sporting event on the calendar which moved due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Like the Euro football (planted from June 11 to July 11, 2021), the Olympic Games (July 23 to August 8, 2021) and Paralympic (August 24-September 5).
Le Tour, the hyphen. Dismissing the idea of a closed session on the roads of the Grande Boucle, Christian Prudhomme, the director of the Tour de France, had in recent weeks recalled the unwavering link of the race with the public and the essential role that the spectators played in its history, even in the darkest hours: “The Tour de France is fervor, it is enthusiasm, it is smiles. We have to find them, those smiles. "
The Tour de France, the sun race is the showcase and the pillar of cycling activity. He carries his economy at arm's length. The presence of the Grande Boucle in the calendar is a reassuring signal for the economy of the teams and the future of the riders. " It is very simple. If the Tour does not take place, teams could disappear, runners and members of management would find themselves out of work, "summed up AFP Marc Madiot, the manager of the Groupama-FDJ team who is also the President of the National Cycling League.
After a spring that will not welcome any monument (Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and Liège-Bastogne-Liège having, like the Tour of Italy been postponed), cycling clings to the hope of a Tour that would take part in the newfound time with its colors, banners, decorum and itinerant force…
The original route unchanged
After a 2019 Tour any fire any flame, carried by the enthusiasm of Thibaut Pinot and Julian Alaphilippe, valiant blue-white-red duo, the Tour 2020 could in a calendar punctuated by points of suspension offer an unexpected soap opera. Between tradition and discovery. 12 new cities appear on the route of the Tour 2020. The magnificent Col de la Loze (2304 m), above Méribel, is expected as one of the attractions of publishing, such as the Grand Colombier, theater of a first arrival at the top of a Tour cut in half crosswise, obscuring the North and the West to offer an original design that will create suspense and whip up the spectacle. After Fleurance (1977, 1979), Nice (already in 1981), San Sebastian (1992), Monaco (2009) and Porto-Vecchio (2013), the Tour de France will start for the 7th time from the far south in 2020 and will return to Nice where the Tour will pass for the 37th time. The stage is set. The ideal calendar set. It frees up the time essential for runners on the roads. Pascal Chanteur, president of the UNCP union (National Union of Professional Cyclists) recalled: "For the riders to be successful on a big lap, it takes between eight and ten weeks of preparation between the resumption of training and the start of a great tour ”. So that the Tour can resume its summer quarters, biting a bit in August (as in 1907, 1908, 1909, 1936, 1950, 1954 and 1998) and venturing in September, which he never had made. The Tour which has lived through so many episodes and survived scandals is ready for new adventures…
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