Greens force Tour de France to shift start

GREEN municipal councillors in Brittany have blocked a plan for the Tour de France to start from the city of Rennes next year on the grounds that it would damage the local environment.

The Greens are up in arms over what Jean-marie Goater, a Rennes councillor, described as the “disastrous environmental impact and waste management” of the world’s most famous cycle race.

Mr Goater urged cycling fans to rediscover the virtues of the sport “far from the race, where money is king, with its sponsoring, TV business and doping”.

The Tour’s organisers have been forced to change the route and start the race in another Brittany city, Brest.

Valérie Faucheux, co-president of a group of Green councillors in Rennes, said: “This race has had its time but now run its course and it’s struggling to reinvent itself.”

The Greens, riding high after local election victories in several French cities in June, are determined to prove they can make a difference.

But their opposition to the Tour, which attracts a huge international following and is a source of pride for many French people, has exposed them to attack.

Bernard Hinault, the last French winner of the race in 1985 and a Breton, said Ms Faucheux’s attitude made him angry. “You can’t say cycling is a thing of the past. It’s ridiculous. I think she should think before opening her mouth,” he said.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced organisers to delay the Tour this year. It is to start on Aug 29.