Christian Prudhomme was in Montpellier this Friday, November 15, while the Hérault city will host a stage in 2025. The opportunity to discuss, with the boss of the Tour de France, this return and the state of French cycling.
Why was it important for the Tour de France to return to Montpellier?
It had simply been 9 years since Montpellier had seen the Tour. It has been an emblematic city of the Tour de France since 1930, an important year in which there was the introduction of the national selections and the creation of the advertising caravan. We were there in 2013 for the hundredth edition of the Tour. There was undoubtedly too long an absence, but also due to the essential work taking place in the city.
Above all, it will be a separate step…
Montpellier is ideally located between the Pyrenees and the Alps. This will be a very important stage to manage, especially for the champions, since some champions struggle the day after the rest day. Especially when Mont Ventoux arrives. Mont Chauve is a day apart, like Alpe d'Huez. Even for us, the organizers, there is always a particular tension because we never know what it will be like. This time, unlike 2016 when we had to stop at Chalet Reynard because of the wind, we hope to go to the very top.
On this 100% French Tour, we return to classics. From the plain at the beginning, from the mountains in the second part of Tour, the Wall of Brittany, Mont Ventoux…
Geography plays a huge role. Obviously, on the Tour de France route, when we leave Lille and go to Brittany, inevitably, we will be in the plain. But it is a plain of pretense. A potential sprinters’ festival? Absolutely not. I even want to tell you that sprinters have a small portion.
You have four stages which are selective, with climbs, certainly short, we are not going to climb the equivalent of Tourmalet or Galibier, but with percentage. When we see that a Pogacar, an Evenepoel, are capable of attacking anywhere… What I simply hope this year is that there is no serious fall in the spring. Let there be no diminished favorites. And that the French are exhilarated by the memory of the 40th birthday of the last French winner of the Tour, Bernard Hinault, in 1985.
“Having big sponsors is perhaps what French teams are missing”
Criticisms and suspicions emanate from Tadej Pogacar's performances… What do you think?
Given the history of cycling, we can always ask questions everywhere. We fought for years to have an independent agency that takes care of controls. Today there is the ITA (International Control Agency). I don't doubt for a single second its effectiveness.
Doesn’t this difference in level reduce the attractiveness of cycling?
No. We have been lucky enough to have attacks from afar for 4 or 5 years, since 2019 and the turn of the gunslingers, if you allow me the expression, of Thibaut Pinot and Julien Alaphilippe (laughing). Then there were Van Aert, Van Der Poel, Pogacar, Evenepoel, etc.
Me, I wasn't a fan of the Sky era, where it was completely padlocked, it attacked 800 meters from the finish. There, it attacks from afar, it makes or breaks. We had an absolutely fantastic Tour 2 years ago, we had an exceptional half-tour last year. I just hope that everyone arrives in full possession of their means.
If Vingegaard had not crashed at the Tour of the Basque Country, would it have been more balanced?
When Vingegaard won at Lioran, I thought it was going to change for him. Obviously, the entirely logical after-effects of his fall at the Tour du Pays Basque meant that he did not last the distance. So I hope they will both last the distance next year. And if by chance we find a David Gaudu as good as a few years ago, that will be great.
French cycling is worried about the rise of major sponsors (Bahrain, Emirates, Red Bull, etc.), how do you judge it, forty after the last French winner?
We are lucky to be professionals paid to do our passion. Most people in cycling are volunteers who fight. It's more and more complicated to obtain authorizations, find budgets, etc. This is why the link with everyday cycling is necessary for me. The bicycle has never been so fashionable in 100 years.
Having big sponsors is perhaps what the French teams are missing, too. There is a reflection carried out by the UCI, with the organizers, the teams, on the fact of perhaps having a maximum budget. Because in fact, with the capital coming in particular from Arab countries, the match is a little unbalanced. It's an understatement to say so.
