At the Tour de France, the fight on the road has already been an intense one. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, another war has been going on... A fruit war!
The supermarket chain Lidl are the new sponsors of the former Trek - Segafredo team. Looking to showcase some of the best fresh fruit and veg the supermarket has to offer, Lidl-Trek have a beautiful fruit basket outside their team bus. The only problem is, they have been banned from sharing the fruit by Tour de France sponsors and Lidl's rivals, the French-based supermarket chain Leclerc.
“The situation is as follows,” says Lidl-Trek spokesman Jakob Kennison. “We are allowed to display the fruit and our riders and staff members are also allowed to eat it. But fans at the bus are not allowed to do that.”
"ASO has a sponsorship agreement with Leclercq," Kennison continues. “If people are about to take a piece of fruit, we tell them that it is not allowed."
This is the fruit stand outside @LidlTrek's bus. They'd like to give the fruit to fans/journalists. One problem: ASO have banned them from doing so. Why? Leclerc, sponsors of the Tour, are a rival of Lidl, thus they're not permitted to hand out apples and pears 😢 #TourFruitWar
