Tour de France. Why does the 2020 route zap half of France?

The route of the Tour de France 2020 was unveiled, Tuesday, October 15 in Paris. It will make a great loop in the southern half of the country, without venturing into the North. A deliberate choice on the part of the organizers, who has however disappointed. But here's why ASO can not satisfy everyone …

They were still numerous, this Tuesday, October 15, to complain about the route of the Tour de France 2020. They are a little the same each year, with the same arguments, while the course of the next edition is presented as one of the more exciting these last summers.

But the object of their criticism is always focused on one point: it is no longer the Tour de France, but only part of France. Implied: not the one where we live. Not ours. Hence frustrations.

Indeed, once again, ASO, the organizer of the Great Loop, made choices, and did not voluntarily opted for a wide loop in France. In 2020, the Tour will make almost all of its stages in the southern half of the country. In 2019, the riders remained mainly in the eastern half of the map …

Eccentric departures and shorter routes

Why such narrow courses? First, everything is linked to the Grand Depart of the Tour de France. When it is done in Nice, like next summer, admit that it is difficult to be able, from three weeks, to go from North to South while passing by the East and the West, taking into account the two immutable constraints for decades: go through the Pyrenees and the Alps, and finish in Paris. Especially since the stages, unlike the first Tour de France, are no longer 350 or 400 km, and distances are necessarily shorter. Thus, the Tour de France 1926 was 5,745 km in total, while that of the next summer will "only" 3,470 km.

In 2021, with a departure from Copenhagen, Denmark, needless to say that it will be impossible, again, to cover the entire territory …

"We do not go from city to city anymore"

"In 3,500 kilometers over three weeks, with a start in Nice, we can not go to every corner of France, confirms Christian Prudhomme, director of the Tour de France, Tuesday in Paris, day of the presentation of the course. Before, the Tour was more than 5,000 kilometers, it could go everywhere … "

Especially since ASO also assumes a new line of conduct in the selection of its route. "We do not go from city to city anymore, with straight lines of 250 km on a map, also says Thierry Gouvenou. From now on, we will look for difficulties around an arriving city, which means that on a map, we will inevitably go to fewer places. "

ASO takes the past into account

It is therefore necessary to decide. And in this regard, ASO, takes into account the latest editions. Precedents, even to make unfortunate. "This departure from Nice pushes us very much to the south, so we tried to go and see less visited regions, like Charente, Poitou. " Christian Prudhomme, director of the Tour de France, cowardly: "We try to go on average every five or six years in every region of France. "

The athlete, a real criterion

It is the sporting criterion which prevails today, in the choice of courses. In their coherence. For the organizers of the Great Loop, it is unimaginable, now, to spend in a region for five days, offering five stages of flat, even if this corner of France has not hosted the Great Loop for two or three years. The Tour is a party, certainly, but it remains first a sporting event. "Cycling has changed. Plains stages are considered throbbing … ", confirms Christian Prudhomme. His team has been brainstorming, for some years now, to find explosive stages, nervous and unexpected arrivals. And as Thierry Gouvenou explains, this is necessarily at the expense of long diagonals.

Critics, the organizers of the Tour de France receive them very calmly. "You know, I take these criticisms well, it means that people want the Tour …", says Christian Prudhomme. "We are also criticized when we do five stages of plain, but we must assume that, even if it is not a final choice …"

That the disappointed of the West are reassured: the Tour could make its return home from 2021. "We'll come back to it", promises Christian Prudhomme. «Quickly ", said Thierry Gouvenou Tuesday.

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Tour de France. Why does the 2020 route zap half of France?Ouest-France.fr

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