Jean-René Bernaudeau, one of the historic team leaders of French cycling, at the head of the Total Energies team, calls for a strengthening of the health bubble around the riders.
Two runners were affected by the Covid. The organizers will test the whole peloton from Sunday evening. Are you worried?
JEAN-RENE BERNAUDEAU. We wait, we have a Damocles sword above our heads. It’s a bit scary.
What precautions do you take in the team?
We make barrier gestures as much as possible, we do antigens every day, we are tested every three days in PCR. We already had a positive coach, he came back when he was negative. There, at the moment, we have our sports director Lylian Lebreton, he was positive, asymptomatic, but we isolated him, he went home. So cases, there really are.
Could this have consequences for the race and the general classification?
Anyone can be infected. This morning, there are two who do not leave. And in the next few days, we could have some surprises on the headliners…
What do you recommend?
The riders’ bubble must be protected as much as possible. There is the public, the crowd on the side of the roads, and for that we can do nothing. But at least we can manage the starts by isolating the riders.
This is not the case ?
We are supposed to have a racing bubble with obligations for the media, and this morning for example, we are forced to pass in the crowd. It’s unbearable. They touch us, it’s not serious. It hurts to make all these efforts, to end up passing through the crowd, in a moment of crisis. Because it’s a Covid crisis, and we don’t take it into account. This morning, I had a hard time. It fucks up all the effort we put in.
That’s to say ?
We take all these precautions, and then we get into the crowd like that… I really hate being left like that. This morning at the start, I got angry. We have to protect the runners. That’s all that matters, that they are in Paris.
