Tour de France: Caen still in the race to host a stage
By Maxence Gorregues
Published on
While the 109th Tour de France cyclist sets off this Friday 1uh July 2022 from Copenhagen to Denmark, the inhabitants of Caen and other cycling enthusiasts in Calvados will have to be content, this year again, to see the peloton go very far. Normandy is not one of the regions visited by the Tour 2022, which forgets a very large western part of the country.
A failure in 2019
Behind the scenes, at the town hall of Caen, we do not despair of hosting a stage of the most prestigious cycling race in the world in the near future, although the subject has been discussed for a good ten years now. In particular, the idea of a departure from England for an arrival on the landing beaches had been put forward, echoing the 75th anniversary of D-Day in 2019. Elected officials from Caen and Portsmouth on the other side of the Channel had written jointly to the organizers, to propose a stage, an arrival or a departure from the two cities. Nothing had happened.
“Caen is still a candidate, confirms the mayor, Joël Bruneau. It remains to be seen when our city will be on the route of the Tour. To host a stage, the town hall assures that it is ready to release, at least, the 200,000 euros claimed by the organizing committee, not to mention the road works that a possible passage of the Tour will systematically generate.
28 years of waiting…
For the time being, the route of the Tour 2023 is not known. It is only established that Bilbao in Spain will host the big departure. The complete route of the following edition is often presented in mid-October. Also, according to The Gazetta dello Sportthe 2024 Tour could start from Florence in Italy.
Since the Second World War, Caen has been the finish city for a stage 15 times, and the start city 14 times. The last time was in 2006, after the 225 km of the 5th stage, which started from Beauvais. That day, Oscar Freire won in the ducal city, and Tom Boonen wore the yellow jersey. The people of Caen then had to wait 28 years, before their city once again became a stage on the map of the most prestigious cycling competition in the world…
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