"We'll soon be doing half of the Tour de France abroad..." - Marc Madiot concerned with Tour becoming too foreign
Cycling
In 2026, Tour de France will take off from Barcelona while the very next edition's Grand Départ is set to take place in the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh. By that time, less than a half of Tour de Frances of this decade would've started in its home country, Groupama - FDJ team manager Marc Madiot notices.
"We're in the Tour de France. Starting from abroad from time to time seems normal and economically essential to me. But for it to become so recurrent seems far too much," he protested this Sunday on RMC's Les Grandes Gueules du Sport. Madiot is clearly in anticipation of the Grand Départ in Lille this summer.
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Organizers shouldn't be trying to trade the name of Grande Boucle just for a bit of extra pocket money, he calls. "The event is called the Tour de France! I know it's not always easy to get the financial compensation we hope for in each edition. But I think we have to be reasonable and not just look at the financial side. We need to have a Tour de France in France. If we continue like this, we'll soon be doing half of the Tour de France abroad..." lamented Marc Madiot on RMC.
As a manager of French formation, preparing for Grand Départ outside of the country is an extra organizational hassle for Madiot. And obviously, it also takes away the joy of witnessing the first kilometers and team presentations away from French crowds. Madiot believes that ASO has been forgetting where are the race's roots.
"The Tour de France is the Tour de France, it's a jewel of our nation. I don't see why we would spend our time competing in foreign countries. We don't get any additional compensation when it starts abroad. It costs us more. We don't get paid anything for it. Zero, not a cent," he concluded.
Brother, you started 9 Tour, 4 of those abroad. This isn't new, stop complaining
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- The finale of this race was an absolute mess, and the last crash that took out 1/2 of the field was caused when a double width road very suddenly funneled into a single lane, and riders had nowhere to go. I find it amazing how some of these courses get approved in the first place. So much for the UCI's campaign for improved rider safety, because if they actually cared, the organizers wouldn't have been allowed to run the finale on this parcours.
santiagobenites26-03-2025 - I hope Wout can come back. He has had 3 terrible crashes--not on par with Froome or Bernal, but at his level just a fraction of a percent is all that separates the grand champions of this new generation. Even if he is back all the way physically, those abrupt confrontations with pavement and mortality take a psychic toll, especially for a father of young kids.
Barney26-03-2025 - Everyone was so keen on free speech for a while, what happened ;-) But seriously, the problem is not so much that he gave his view as that someone follows it and spreads it, not totally unlike the schoolkids running US war games at present ;-)Mistermaumau26-03-2025
- We'll see what happens this year, hopefully he finds himself a little stronger.awp26-03-2025
- awp, the way and races he races, he probably doesn’t feel like he needs that many or specific race days before the Tour. His program isn’t very different from other years.Mistermaumau26-03-2025
- No, he just realises he’s not a one-day racer so why should he force himself?Mistermaumau26-03-2025
- Sacrificing E3 and G-W that were planned seems like he was hedging his options and only decided to do it after not winning MSR. Would he have planned to do all 5 and if so why hold back on announcing P-R if it wasn’t conditional? Guess people will get active with predictions now :-).Mistermaumau26-03-2025
- The MTB World title - there is no such thing. However, there are World titles in XCC, XCO, XCM, XCE, Enduro, Downhill......... He's after the World title in XCO, but could probably win the XCC title too, as his record is still better than anybody else, and he hasn't ridden an XCC World Cup since May 2021. Ten wins from twelve races says it all..... However, the XCO course is Crans-Montana is technical - he will surely need plenty of time back on the MTB, both training, and racing, otherwise it's going to be another doomed ambition.wipperman9526-03-2025
- Sweet. I wonder who's up on the next episode of Disgraced Ex-Doper Offers an Unsolicited Opinion?critguy26-03-2025
- well, paris-roubaix isn’t hilly AT ALL. it’s flat. the obstacle isn’t the hills it’s the cobbles, and what i’ve gathered over the years is that it’s almost impossible to imagine the beating that the body takes riding that course at race pace.OCexile26-03-2025