Masks and social distancing are invited again on the Tour de France, which starts from Bilbao on Saturday.
If it is only a distant memory for some, on the Tour de France, the Covid-19 remains a topical subject. As in the last three editions, the Grande Boucle, which leaves on Saturday July 1 from Bilbao, will be contested under health protocol. Followers, journalists and guests will have to take the masks out of the closet if they want to come into contact with the runners.
Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), the organizing company of the Tour, wants to avoid the same misadventure which undermined the Tour of Italy, in particular illustrated by the abandonment mid-term of the leader Remco Evenepoel, because of a positive test. .
“We are the last to do it. But once there is the Covid in the peloton, and we have seen it on the Giro, it is very difficult to stop because we spend the whole day breathing life. ‘air of the other’, underlines Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) to AFP. Runners will be instructed to avoid selfies and autographs. “On the other hand, they will not wear a mask on the podium. We do not want a total contrast between everyday life and us either”underlines the director of the Tour, Christian Prudhomme, who himself regrets not being able to “shake hands with the runners” for the fourth edition in a row.
The conciliatory peloton
If nothing obliges the organizers of cycle races to impose such a protocol in the regulations of the International Cycling Union (UCI), the teams and the riders involved are in line with the decision taken by the Tour de France. Some, like Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step), even take the lead. The double world champion on the road in 2020 and 2021 had noticed, in the plane leading him to the Dauphiné, that he had been “one of the only ones to wear a mask” because he had “really want to do the Tour”.
“We can see that the teams are tightening the screws themselves as the Tour approaches. The Jumbo-Visma [l’équipe du vainqueur sortant Jonas Vingegaard] wear the mask all the time. They are very careful”, emphasizes Christian Prudhomme. In the event of a positive test, the principle adopted by most teams is to send the runner home.
The sporting director of the Groupama-FDJ team, Philippe Mauduit, says to himself “share” : “We know that there are plenty of other sports where we don’t control anything, neither doping nor the Covid, he explains, giving the example of rugby players who compete scrum after scrum before “kissing while drinking beers”. “But my first reaction is to say: we protect the runners.”
Preserving the health of runners
“I don’t want to have the death of a 23-year-old on my conscience”justified the boss of the Soudal-Quick Step team, Patrick Lefevere, after the announcement of the withdrawal of Remco Evenepoel from the Giro. “We have runners whose lung functions have been affected. We want to be as preventive as possible in relation to complications. They are not numerous but they are annoying”explains Dr. Serge Niamke, medical manager of the AG2R-Citroën team.
Some riders, like the Frenchman Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) or the German Simon Geschke (Cofidis), took several weeks to recover from a Covid-19 infection. having “realized for three years that there are runners who have never regained their level”Philippe Mauduit recalls that “cycling is a very demanding sport where the match lasts between 4h30 and 6h30”.