NICE • The Tour de France rolls out of the French Riviera today with peaks, plains and rigid coronavirus protocols standing between the 176 riders and the final dash along the Champs-Elysees in Paris.
Race chief Christian Prudhomme likes to say the Tour is "3,000km of smiles", but he has appealed for the expected 10 million roadside fans to mask up this year.
Spectators, however, will not be at the Promenade des Anglais race start today after the Alpes-Maritimes region, which Nice is a part of, was reclassified as a Covid-19 "red zone", along with 18 other French departments due to a resurgence in cases across the country.
The number of daily infections in France reached a post-lockdown high of 6,111 on Thursday.
As such, the enhanced safety measures will also apply to stage 2, with no camper vans or pop-up villages allowed, according to regional prefect Bernard Gonzalez.
Confirming only 100 attendees, comprising municipality staff "who worked so hard to get this to happen", will be at the flag-off, he said: "We're shifting from tight to very tight conditions. People should stay home and watch on TV."
To ensure the safety of the participants, race organisers ASO have implemented an 18-page protocol list that states two positive Covid-19 cases in any team will see them removed from the blue-riband event, although sources told Reuters that rule "is expected to be relaxed".
All involved have already undergone two polymerase chain reaction (PCR) nasal tests in the build-up and there will be consistent testing carried out. The stricter regulations have impacted Lotto Soudal, with four members of the Belgian team ejected from the race on Thursday after a mechanic and a caretaker tested positive.
Race favourites Ineos Grenadiers, whose previous iteration Team Sky have won seven of the last eight editions of the Tour, believe organisers have done everything in their power to reduce the risk of contracting the virus.
While team principal Dave Brailsford yesterday admitted "nobody knows if we're going to reach (final stage) Paris", he said: "They really have done everything possible to make the event work."
On the possibility of a false positive derailing a team's chances - an issue that Germany's Bora-Hansgrohe raised at the Bretagne Classic earlier this week - the Briton added it was "not the best scenario" but a risk everyone had to take.
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Five key stages
2: NICE-NICE (187KM)
Seeking to emulate the thrill of last year's Tour, organisers lit the fuse on this year's route with bonus seconds up for grabs on the penultimate climb and at the finish line of mountainous stage 2. Perhaps that will encourage someone like Julian Alaphilippe to attack from distance and seize the initiative and yellow jersey in the low Alps behind Nice to establish an attacking pattern.
9: PAU-LARUNS (154KM)
The second Pyrenean stage is possibly the toughest on Tour with an 11km climb at over 9 per cent of the Col de la Hourcere, just the first of four climbs and a treacherous, winding descent to the finish.
10: ILE DE OLERON-ILE DE RE (170KM)
Never before has a stage started on one island and finished on another, as this Atlantic coast extravaganza does. The organisers are hoping for wind on the day to create breaks in the peloton as it weaves through the narrow roads of the coastal marshes and the September weather is likely to provide just that.
17: GRENOBLE-MERIBEL COL DE LA LOZE (168KM)
The final climb up a summit that has never figured before on the Tour culminates on an old ski piste maintenance road converted into a 7km bike track. It has flat sections and 20 per cent inclines. The peak stands at 2,300m and offers an idyllic 360-degree view, giving fans the chance of a masked selfie with Mont Blanc in the background.
20: LURE-LA PLANCHE DES BELLES FILLES (36KM)
With a preference for shoulder-to-shoulder racing, organisers have scheduled the only time trial in French hopeful Thibaut Pinot's backyard.
The ride up to the Planche des Belles Filles in the Jura Mountains starts out flat and has a long incline before a final 6km ascent that rounds off the decisive action, making it clearly a key stage for anyone looking to earn the yellow jersey.
Egan Bernal will defend his title as sole captain of Ineos, who axed both four-time winner Chris Froome and 2018 champion Geraint Thomas from their roster last week.
However, he will not go into the three-week race as the favourite. The Colombian yesterday revealed he was still hampered by back pain, which prompted his withdrawal from the Criterium du Dauphine earlier this month.
Slovenian Primoz Roglic will be his main rival, having won last year's Vuelta a Espana and the recent Tour de l'Ain.
Despite a heavy fall that cost him the Criterium race - he was leading but had to pull out of the last stage - the Jumbo-Visma leader said he has fully recovered and is ready to go.
His teammate and 2017 Giro d'Italia winner, Tom Dumoulin, will also give the Dutch team a two-pronged assault on the general classification, making them the biggest threat to Ineos.
Brailsford insisted his team's pedigree means they cannot be counted out, saying: " I'm very excited about this young team with an experienced support cast. Egan deserves the leadership. He's a brilliant rider, a huge talent."
Twenty-two teams, including debutants Israel Start-Up Nation, will ply the route, which resembles last year's itinerary and crosses all five of France's mountain ranges.
There will be five summit finishes and 29 classified mountain climbs, with the French plains likely to be whipped by autumn winds, especially on runs along the coast such as stage 10 between the Atlantic islands of Oleron and Re.
In a Tour like no other, it will be a victory in itself whether it is Bernal, Roglic or another who pulls on the yellow jersey in Paris on Sept 20.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
