Unlike a football match which begins when the referee has given the kick-off with his whistle, a Tour de France stage begins in two separate acts.
Each race day starts with a start described as "
fictitious
", in the city hosting the Grande Boucle.
The peloton stays together and drives at a moderate pace in the host municipality, for a few minutes, the time to get out of the built-up area.
“
It is essential because without this fictitious start, we could not leave the city center in a secure way, without taking risks
”, confides Thierry Gouvenou, the technical director of the Tour de France, who sees a second interest in it.
"
It also allows all the vehicles behind to position themselves in the right place because everyone is coming out of the parking lot and it has to be put in place.
Not everything can be done with the snap of your fingers
, ”explains the former runner, teammate of Greg LeMond in the 90s.
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The fictitious start also offers the opportunity to the city, which paid 80,000 euros excluding tax to invite the event, to set up certain festivities which bring a large audience to the city center and thus make the businesses work.
It even happens that the peloton stops for a moment to greet the presence of an important personality on the course or to celebrate a short ceremony.
Christian Prudhomme is about to give the start of the event.
AFP
During this parade, which never exceeds 10 kilometers (beyond, you have to ask for a special dispensation, which only happens on the occasion of outings from major cities), the runners obviously do not have the right to attack, the race director's car in any case precedes the peloton which must cross without any latecomers the real starting line symbolized by kilometer zero of the stage.
All runners must be there at the actual start, otherwise it is delayed
The presence of all the runners is also an obligation to kick off the hostilities.
If ever one of them punctures a tire, for example, then the real start will wait a bit and will only be given from kilometer one, or even two when it has returned to the ranks of the teams.
This situation also happened in Denmark when two riders were victims of mechanical glitches at the start of the second stage, suddenly delaying the release of big cats on the course.