Christian Prudhomme, head of the Tour de France for 17 years, in a recent interview, discussed the evolution and future of cycling, as well as the controversial project to create a cycling league, the Super League, which apparently would not include the ASO (Amaury Sport Organization), a company that runs the Tour de France and is headed by Prudhomme.
Evolution of cycling
Prudhomme began the interview with the French website cyclismactu by discussing the evolution that cycling has had over the last few years.
“What I have in mind is that for 3, 4, 5 years we have had exciting races again. We have fancy hallways, all of that is great. What seems most complicated to me in this evolution of cycling is the mental burden on runners, who, for example, must be very careful 365 days a year with what they eat.”
“They are increasingly in a kind of bubble. The younger generations who were born with it seem to adapt perfectly, but it is certainly more complicated for the older ones.”
Tour de France with new spectators
“In the last Tour de France, a quarter of people were coming for the first time! And there were a majority of women there. Two years ago, the age group that most watched the Tour de France on television was those between 15 and 24 years old.”
“We would never have said that 10 years ago, for this ‘old’ sport. And this is mainly due to the behavior of the champions. It is no coincidence that young people returned.”
Superliga controversy, what do you think of it?
“This is not our project. It’s an idea that was launched, I can’t express myself more about it. We are by no means a driving force in ASO.”
Do you feel threatened?
“Threat ? No. I don’t want to get into that. First of all, it doesn’t interest me and I’m not convinced that many people are interested in it. The greatest strength of cycling is that it is a free sport for those on the roadside. This must stay.”
“The Amaury family has always wanted to seek television contracts with free, general and, if possible, public service television channels. We only make money when we have a lot of spectators.”
“The Tour is a giant broadcast in 190 countries, followed by 2,000 journalists. Seeing the world on the roadside, we even had difficulties and the price of glory with an even larger, younger and therefore more ‘dynamic’ audience.”
“This is the reality of the month of July, in the biggest cycling race in the world. And whoever wants to change something, just needs to realize this.”
Proposal to change cyclists during the Tour de France
Christian Prudhomme also addressed the proposal from Eusebio Unzué (Movistar), who recently stated that it should be possible for a team to replace a cyclist after a serious fall, as happened with Enric Mas, during the 2023 Tour de France.
“This is nothing new, because even when I had just arrived at ASO there was already something happening. I’m not sure, but it seems to me that it was Manolo Saiz who had this idea at the time. My only answer is very simple: cycling is an individual sport practiced as a team. Therefore, it is not a team sport.”
“We can’t win without teammates, that’s for sure. The Netflix series showed this very well. But I say again, it is an individual sport that is managed by teams. If we change to a team sport, it will no longer be the same”, said Christian Prudhomme.