THE SCAN SPORT – Richard Plugge wishes to pay access to climbs to fluidify traffic and allow runners to find their buses faster after the stages.
Will the Tour de France one day become a paid show? If Richard Plugge, the boss of the Jonas Vingegaard formation was one day at the controls of the event, perhaps. Confident on Belgian television, the Dutch leader submitted a shock idea: to pay access to the passes. A revolutionary shock idea to fill the pockets of the teams? No way.
Richard Plugge raises a problem identified by the organizers but very complicated to solve. When the runners arrive at the top, they are most of the time forced to go back to the valleys or await them the buses which do not have enough room to park. We can therefore see Tadej Pogacar and the peloton descend by sometimes crossing latecomers who still have not completed the stage by slaloming to avoid the public with a whistle around the neck to warn of their arrival.
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The descents of the runners are problematic after the mountain stages
“It becomes more and more problematic. It is more and more dangerous for runners, as was the case when recognizing the time trial in the Pyrenees. Now, runners have to go down in the middle of people by bike and by car who are not used to it. You have to be able to retain people and tourists at the top as long as possible ”said the boss of the Visma Lease A Bike team who would like to impose a toll of 1 to 5 euros to reduce the number of spectators. “In this case, much fewer people will come. A small contribution will be enough to leave a whole group at home ”he insists.
“But on the other hand, I still enjoyed the mountain today. It was a fantastic festival, but the evacuation of the descending teams must be improved ”nuanced the manager.
In 2014, Oleg Tinkoff wanted to make spectators pay
The idea of charging access to the steps is not new. Oleg Tinkov, the ex-boss of the Tinkoff-Saxo team had made this proposal to increase the income in the bicycle. “One euro per person is nothing for spectators but if there are three million people on the roads, it’s interesting for the organizer, and therefore for the teams, right?”he had explained in 2014. An idea that had not found echoes in the organizers who have always bound that the free Tour de France was maintained.
