Why This Tour De France Is One Of The Most Important Ever

Two months late, the Tour de France has managed to do what the NBA and the summer Olympics couldn’t. By taking place, under strict sanitary conditions, it has a lot to prove and will bring in much needed money to a beleaguered economy.

This could be one of the biggest ever tours, since the first, when Maurice Garin won in 1903, for a number of reasons, and not just economic.

To showcase France as a post-Covid destination

The race is broadcast, according to Les Echos, in over 190 countries and will showcase France, the number one visited country on the planet, after months of lockdown, to 3.5 billion people.

This isn’t insignificant when reminding the 10-12 million tourists who usually line the route to cheer on the riders, and will be largely absent this year, what they are missing and where they should be looking to book their next holiday.

A comparable sporting event could be the 2018 soccer world cup in Russia which attracted 3.87 billion viewers over one month in 2018, according to BFM TV.

For the sportsmanship

People appreciate the skill of the riders like Egan Bernal, Sepp Kuss or Tejay van Garderen, watching them tear through the lush countryside over 21 stages and 3,484 km (2,165 miles) through beautiful French mountains and towns.

Despite the rain, Norwegian Alexander Kristoff won the first stage of the 107th Tour de France in Nice to to wear the coveted yellow jersey. The French press called it le toboggan niçois (the Niçoise slide) as they ploughed round each hair-raising bend to descend down a scary sloping incline.

The strict sanitary conditions meant fewer public attended and the press was kept at a distance, making the race less scary in some ways. But–according to Benoît Cosnefroy, the French cyclist quoted in Le Monde–the rain meant that the roads were incredibly slippery and it was hard to hold onto the bikes. With the traces of oil and rain on the ground, it was incredibly slippery and many riders crashed out.

Le Monde called it, “the Holiday on Ice at Nice, which wasn’t a holiday”.

For the feted French food and drink

Some people watch to saviour the race as a culinary experience, following the “wine lover’s guide to the Tour” provided by The Spectator, by sampling the alcohol from each region which the race runs through.

The Tour begins with Provençal wine in the Côte d’Azur in stages 1-3, through the heavy reds of the Rhône valley in stages 4 through 6.

Stage 10 is all about the cognac, the Chartreuse whisky is an option at stage 15, with vermouth making an appearance in stage 18 near Chambery.

The race ends up in Paris, after riding through Champagne country, finishing on the Champs-Elysées on 20 September.

Or if food is more your thing, you can eat your way around the route, starting with socca chickpea pancakes in Nice or the pissaladières, the baby pizzas which are a speciality in southern France.

As Le Monde states, “the race promises to be more than a sporting event; it’s a culinary gourmet postcard sent to its viewers every day”.

To prove it can be done

Christian Prudhomme, Tour director, said at the beginning of summer that “only the world war has, on two occasions, prevented the Tour from happening”.

And it’s taking place under tough conditions; each team must stay in their own sanitary bubble and crucially, any team with two or more members testing positive for Covid-19 might be excluded.

This year, for the first time, many of the accompanying race vehicles will also be electric or use hybrid technology.

Crowds will be heavily controlled with the limit being a maximum of 5,000 and the usual amount of 1,800 reporters and photographers covering the event have been largely reduced.

To boost the national and local economies

But crucially, the race brings in a lot of revenue to the broadcasters, advertisers, hoteliers and caterers, all of whom will benefit.

The race costs a town to host it, but it also earns up to 18 times its initial investment in earnings. Like Nice this year, the mountain town of Gap paid in 2013 to be a starting place and an end point as a race ‘circle’ (called a boucle), paying €160,000 ($191,000) and earning €3 million ($3.58 million) for the 48 hours when it took place.

Stages two and three have been won by Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe and Australian Caleb Ewan respectively.

The race leaves southern France on 1 Sept to head up through the Alpilles (baby Alps) from Sisteron to Orcières-Merlette, and at 1,800 metres above sea level, it’s the first chance to see who amongst the racers are climbing well.