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Greens force Tour de France to change starting-point

The 'Grand Depart' of the iconic Tour de France will have to be moved from Rennes after councillors blocked the plan - SEBASTIEN NOGIER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock /Shutterstock
The 'Grand Depart' of the iconic Tour de France will have to be moved from Rennes after councillors blocked the plan - SEBASTIEN NOGIER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock /Shutterstock

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 have long been enamoured of environmentally-friendly bicycles, but they 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.

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.”

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 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, a national icon as the last French winner of the race in 1985, said Ms Faucheux’s attitude made him angry. “You can’t say cycling is a thing of the past. It’s ridiculous,” said Mr Hinault, himself a Breton. “I think she should think before opening her mouth.”   A local news website, Rennes Infos Autrement, described Mr Goater as “green with rage”.

However, it is not the first time that a local authority has refused to host a stage of the Tour. In 2018, the Right-wing mayors of Garches and Marnes-la-Coquette, near Paris, informed the race organisers that hosting it would be too disturbing and not beneficial for their local communities. Last year Grenoble’s Green mayor, Eric Piolle, refused to host the first stage of the race.

This year, the coronavirus pandemic has forced organisers to delay the Tour, which is to start on August 29.