cycling wants to regain its rights, despite the pandemic

Can this damn virus contribute to the most undecided Tour de France in history? Apart from health and organizational constraints, the race should also be influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused its postponement from the beginning of July to the end of August, as well as a stopping of cycling competitions in general for more than four months. “There are certain questions that I like more than others and I like sports questions a lot, smiles Christian Prudhomme, the director of the Tour. The runners had different preparations, it will be less hot during the 3^e week in the Alps and there will be more wind than in July. “

Still under the spell of the previous edition, Christian Prudhomme again hopes for a race in the form of fireworks: “We had an exciting race, with one of the youngest winners in history, the first Colombian [Egan Bernal]. If it farts from the front, I’m the happiest. I sign to have a Tour like 2019 every year. ”

“Huge tactical shots to play”

It was out of the question for him to worry about a possible suffocating domination of the Ineos team, which concentrated in its ranks the last three winners of the event: Egan Bernal and the British Geraint Thomas and Christopher Froome. “It all depends on the scenario. For me, it is not so much the winner that matters, it is the fact that there is no screed on the race. “

While the course was designed to promote the spectacle, steep from the first Sunday – “Two passes over 1,500 meters” -, Christian Prudhomme bet on the opportunism of the peloton in the first days: “There are huge tactical shots to be played for multi-lead teams. Will the five favorites pick up a second-tier guy in a mountain breakaway, or will they leave him three or four minutes looking at each other? “

In the aspiration of Thibaut Pinot and Julian Alaphilippe, great leaders of the 2019 Tour, French cycling can still shine, according to the patron of the Tour: “There is a French ace square with Pinot, Alaphilippe but also Warren Barguil and Romain Bardet. We are not immune to a good surprise. “

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