[ad_1]
The 105th Tour de France is finished. Many runners will take the opportunity to finally blow after months of work, training, racing, success or disillusionment. On the other hand for the organizers, no question of blowing in the immediate future, the time is in the balance sheet. Christian Prudhomme director of the event, answered the questions of our colleagues Parisian on his feelings about this edition, once again dominated by the formation Sky .
Best of – Tour de France 2018
" A Rough Tour"
The context of the great departure in Vendee was particularly tense because of the innocence just decreed, in a rather dubious way Chris Froome by UCI . This obviously did not settle the affairs of M.Prudhomme despite the crowd present at Noirmoutier : " It was a rough ride. started before the start with a very late response on the Froome case.Then temperatures of 30 ° C and above that used the riders first, but also the entire caravan.With an audience that is always the public magnificent tour, friendly, family, except the one that was execrable for three kilometers in the Alpe d'Huez With a blocked road, unlocked during a demonstration [ on stage of Carcbadonne-Luchon ndlr] . " This last event particularly marked the spirits, accentuated by several clichés showing the violent repression of the police against demonstrators who understand that the pbadage of the Tour in their country gives them an opportunity Asion in gold to show their anger to the whole of France. This is not new since in 1982, the metalworkers of Usinord-Denain had succeeded in canceling the 7 July team time trial. But as for the repression of the Aude it is also the runners who suffered, indirectly suffering the effects of the tear gas launched by the gendarmes in the eyes.
"No less than Roadside World "
Another issue was the mbad of spectators present throughout the three weeks. The general impression that emerged is that the most prestigious mountain stages, including that of Alpe d'Huez gathered much less crowd than usual. On this point Christian Prudhomme prefers to retain his impression on the 3 weeks when other stages than the mountain were particularly fulfilled: " I absolutely do not believe that there was less There was a crazy world in Vendée in Brittany In Carcbadonne There never was so much, the mayor told us 80,000. The success of the time trial in the Basque Country was also very strong. " This lower density of viewers also corroborates with an audience down from last year in France Televisions (2 million viewers during the retransmissions of France 3, against 2.3 million in 2017). All this is most likely the consequence of the football World Cup that has some diversion some of the spectators of the Great Loop unless other factors, specific to the race are at the origin ..
"To make the battle breathless"
Given the domination of the 19459003 Sky team in recent years, the organizers try every year to integrate several elements to unleash the race: cobblestones, reduction in the number of riders per team, very short and explosive stages … But despite everything, the formation of Dave Brailsford managed to impose without worry his collective strength, which had a direct impact on the mountain show. The director of the Tour indicated continued in his direction to innovate on the route: " The only thing we can say to ourselves is that the pavements, the 8th day, and that, it is I who wish it, maybe inhibited some champions N our duty to make sure that the battle is breathless For the teams, only the victory is pretty For us, no We want to fight, more suspense. "
"The salary cap, I do not know if it is THE solution"
Other tracks are now evoked to limit the domination of the Sky, including the introduction budget limits as it is done in other sports where money flows more than in cycling. The director of the Tour baderts a nuanced position on the subject, which he can not anyway settle on his scale, the UCI being the only one able to introduce this type of regulation. He therefore rightly prefers to call the debate among all: " I do not know if it is THE solution, but it is certain that Sky is really going to look for the best everywhere, as we can see with Bernal [19459004TheirdominationmaycontinueforsometimeThesystemofthe NBA where one rebalances at a time deserves in any case to be debated in the instances. "
[ad_2]
Source link
