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The Critérium du Dauphiné started on Wednesday. Beyond the sporting aspect for the runners, this stage race is the occasion for the organizing company of the Tour (ASO) of a great dress rehearsal for the sanitary protocol, which should allow the event to have take place despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
It is almost 4:30 p.m. when the Belgian Van Aert raises his arms. Well led by his partners in the Jumbo-Visma, he has just won the sprint, Wednesday August 12, in the first stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné. Then, he quickly introduces himself to the journalists, all wearing a mask, for the traditional post-race interview. An illustration of professional cycling in these times of pandemic.
The Critérium du Dauphiné is traditionally presented as a dress rehearsal before the Tour de France for the riders. This year, it is also particularly important for ASO, the organizing company of the two cycling races, which sees it as an opportunity to test its health protocol before the flagship event of the season.
Strict rules
The Dauphiné, the first race organized by ASO since the end of confinement, has adopted the main lines of the device, which will be the rule during the next Tour de France, scheduled from August 29 to September 20.
“It’s almost a carbon copy, even if the sizes of the events are different,” Pierre-Yves Thouaut, deputy director of the Tour, told AFP. “We are setting up a sanctuary bubble for the race.”
Access to the team bus parking lots is therefore forbidden to the media and limited only to members of this bubble (runners, management and some officials and members of the organization). Binding measures have also been adopted for the accommodation and catering of the various training courses. For the public, the instructions are reflected in particular by the absence of selfies and autographs, usual in cycling races, and access restrictions at the start and finish of a stage.
Objective: to pamper the teams, divided between the need to run (and to win) and the concern to protect their runners. Just like Ineos who complained during the Route d’Occitanie, one of the first races after the interruption of the season, of lax security.
“It was strange. Our caregivers are doing everything they can to make sure that we have masks, while people are always there trying to remove the bottle from your bike,” Dylan Van Baarle, a teammates from Egan Bernal and Christopher Froome at Ineos. “I think the restrictions on the Route d’Occitanie are quite lax. I was also surprised by the number of people who were by the side of the road without masks, too.”
Masked spectators
Is this a consequence of this complaint or a precautionary measure, while the pandemic shows signs of recovery? In any case, wearing a mask has been made compulsory for spectators on the side of the Critérium roads.
The prefect of the Loire, Évence Richard, said he had taken this measure “at the request of ASO, organizer of the Critérium du Dauphiné”.
At the request of ASO, the wearing of a sanitary mask will be compulsory for spectators on the routes of the Critérium du # Dauphiné which starts this Wednesday. Only Savoie among the 5 departments crossed has not yet taken this measure but “the decree is in the process of being signed”.
– Le Gruppetto (@LeGruppetto) August 11, 2020
“The health situation remains fragile in the Loire, where the spread of the virus is still active”, he noted.
Only among the five departments concerned, Savoy has not yet taken action in this direction. But “the decree is being studied and signed,” said one to the prefecture.
Worlds canceled or moved
The resumption of the professional cycling season remains fragile and conditioned to the evolution of the epidemic. As the riders tried to tame the slopes of the Critérium, the organizers of the 2020 World Road Cycling Championships, scheduled for September 20 to 27 at the Swiss site of Aigle-Martigny, announced their cancellation.
According to decisions taken by the Swiss federal authorities on Wednesday, large demonstrations “involving more than 1,000 people” remain prohibited until September 30. “As a result, the organization of the World Championships is impossible, especially as more than 45 countries are subject to quarantine for entry into Switzerland (…), which would not allow the event to be given the desired influence, “said the organizers in a statement.
The International Cycling Union (UCI) reacted by indicating that it wishes to maintain the events and is working on “an alternative project” so that the 2020 edition of the Worlds “is held, as a priority in Europe and on the dates initially planned”.
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