Tour de France: In front of up to 5000 spectators through the risk area

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France is preparing for the most important sporting event of the year

ERIC GAILLARD / REUTERS

If the Tour de France starts next Saturday with a two-month delay, the favorites will be challenged immediately. After the first stage in Nice, which ends with a view of the Mediterranean on the famous Promenade des Anglais, two mountains of the first category will already have to be conquered on the second day. Up to the fifth stage it goes through the hilly landscape of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region.

Due to the increased number of new corona infections, the federal government issued a travel warning on Monday for precisely this area in France. As for the Île-de-France region with the capital Paris - where the tour ends appropriately on September 20 - the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has identified Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur as a risk area.

That shouldn't change much for the professional cyclists. You and your supervisors move in a closed environment and should not have any contact with the tour entourage. The drivers will be tested twice for the corona virus before the Tour of France starts, and two more tests will follow on the rest days during the tour.

However, it will not be a closed event. The authorities in France have allowed up to 5000 spectators for the individual stages. These should be allowed on the route, especially in the start and finish area, but access to the mountains should be severely limited.

The organizer ASO asks the fans to always wear mouth and nose protection. In Nice it is mandatory to wear a mask outside anyway. "A tour behind closed doors doesn't make sense," said tour director Christian Prudhomme. In France there had recently been up to 4,000 new infections per day.

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