Tour de France: accused of being macho and polluting, the Grande Boucle defends itself

The arrow struck head-on.

And it stings.

The long colorful human ribbon, which roars, parries and backfires as it crisscrosses the Hexagon, lowered its head before resuming its course.

Not rang but almost.

His arrival this Saturday in Lyon has indeed taken a controversial turn, after the words of his mayor environmentalist Grégory Doucet in the columns of Progress this Thursday morning, evoking a Tour de France "macho and polluting".

After Rennes refused to host the Grand Départ in 2021 under pressure from elected Greens, the charge is virulent.

It designates pell-mell "the absence of a female Tour", "vehicles with thermal engines", "the waste generated", "the goodies thrown by the caravan".

The day before, Léonore Moncond'huy, the new mayor of Poitiers had put more form by advancing all the same that the next passage of the Tour in the city "would be feminine".

Reactions flared up in the political milieu to defend the institution born in 1903. We do not deprive like that, of a declaration, a population attached to this history, to these roots.

ASO, the organizer, turned his back, simply stating that the race was evolving with the times.

On this Tour surrounded by the virus, ASO is lining up forty hybrid vehicles, three 100% electric cars followed the Gap - Privas stage and this will be the case again when arriving at the Planche des Belles Filles, on September 19, the day before the Champs-Elysées.

"If the Women's Tour has disappeared, it is because there was no economic profitability"

Plastic hunting has also been decreed.

On the caravan which distributes nearly 20 million objects, only food products can be packed with this material.

Strict criteria have also been established when crossing national parks or natural sites.

When arriving at Mont Aigoual a week ago, Christian Prudhomme, the director, himself scolded the spectators who threw any paper on the ground.

Prudhomme, affected by the coronavirus and returned home for at least a week, reacted on the "macho" side.

"It is simply impossible for another event to be held during the Tour," he said on RMC.

But we have been organizing women's races for a long time: La Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, La course By Le Tour… There will be a women's Paris-Roubaix on October 25th and we are working on a major women's stage race for 2022 If the Women's Tour disappeared, it was because there was no economic profitability.

It is not a problem of parity.

"

Load shedding zones for waste

At the heart of the peloton, this commotion did not really make you smile.

"The Tour is neither more macho nor more polluting than another event," said Marc Madiot, manager of Groupama FDJ.

The runners, already under the pressure of the race and the threat of the virus, had other hares to run.

Guillaume Martin, the leader of Cofidis, third in the general classification, still gave his point of view: “It's a complicated question.

The organizers are making efforts for gender equality

) and from an ecological point of view, there are shedding areas for our waste .

Of course, our sport has something to think about about all of this.

She's on her way.

These are not things that are done in a day.

To throw the reproach like that point blank on a test, it's a bit easy too.

It's better to work with the organizers to improve things because in the image of the company, the dynamics are good.

"