The anti-Covid health bubble, the Tour de France is willing to assume it. The social bubble much less. While the Tour, after its weekend in the Spanish Basque country, arrives in France to land in Bayonne, the question of the social context and urban revolts inevitably arose. Is the Tour worried about the state of the country and does it fear for its safety? Officially, the organizers are in permanent discussions with the Ministry of the Interior and are ready to advise in the event of a threat.
In reality, they were reassured by the police. In all likelihood, the Tour is not a credible target for potential rioters. The only concern would be the number of police and gendarmes mobilized to secure the route and which, in the context of local incidents, could be reduced to lend a hand to colleagues. “But we organized ourselves upstream so that this is not the case, clears a police official. We remain on our usual objectives of securing the road and the spectators. »
As for the teams, the story is the same. “We don’t arrive in the cities at 1:30 am, says Vincent Lavenu, the boss of AG2R-Citroën. This is not a major concern in racing. Jean-René Bernaudeau, his counterpart at Total-Energies, said the same thing: “I refuse to be worried, even though many Spaniards questioned me this week to find out why there were social riots. I don’t believe the Tour is a target. »
The fear of the caravan
At the Lidl-Trek team, whose stores were looted recently, there is no tension either: “We don’t see why we would be a target more than another”, we retort.
The only fear, if the Tour wants to play scare, it would be for possible looting. Because in the team trucks parked in the hotels, the riders’ bikes are very expensive. More than 15,000 euros each. But security is already reinforced there and has nothing to do with the context. For example, each team parks a car in front of the truck door to prevent it from being opened at night.
If some fears are to be found, it is rather on the side of the advertising caravan that they must be sought. “We have given caution instructions to our staff who are often housed in hotels that are far away and not necessarily protected, explains the manager of an emblematic brand of the Grande Boucle. The real fear is that someone will burn an advertising vehicle at night. Just for the symbol. »
