Tour de France organizer Christian Prudhomme has spoken about the future Grand Arrivées of the Tour de France. Last year’s finish took place outside Paris for the first time, and according to Prudhomme, it won’t stop there.
“I think the finish in Nice, outside Paris, won’t be unique. We were very pleased with Nice,” the Frenchman said in an interview with CyclingWeekly. "But what’s crucial for me is that we always maintain a very strong connection with the city of Paris."
"The only real question is: if we don’t go to Paris one year, what do we do then? We certainly don’t want to have any conflicts with the mayor of Paris, but next March there are municipal elections in all major French cities. Of course, we will have to work with a new team, since Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, is not running for re-election. We’ll see how all that unfolds. The fundamental question for me – because we can easily hold the finish somewhere else – is what will happen in 2027? It’s clear that Paris cannot be separated from the Tour de France."
After a year finishing in Nice, the Tour returns to Paris this year, but on a renewed local circuit that includes the Montmartre cobbled climb. "The Champs-Élysées is beautiful, but all the people are under the trees, so you do see the beauty of Paris, but you don’t get the impression of a mass crowd. On Rue Lepic in Montmartre, you do see the crowd."
