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TOUR DE FRANCE

Tour de France against re-assigning Armstrong wins

Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said Friday he was against re-attributing disgraced US rider Lance Armstrong's seven victories in the world's most prestigious cycling race.

Tour de France against re-assigning Armstrong wins
Photo: Christina Andrada

The US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) this week said Armstrong was at the centre of the biggest doping programme in sporting history, as it produced more than 1,000 pages of testimony to support its decision to ban him for life in August.

"We cannot be indifferent to what USADA has unmasked this week, it's a damning picture that's been drawn," Prudhomme said.

"What we want is that there is no winner," Prudhomme said of the seven years between 1999 and 2005 when Armstrong was victorious in the gruelling annual race.

Evoking what he described as a "lost decade", the Tour organiser quoted the 19th century French poet, novelist and dramatist Victor Hugo: "Those who live are those who fight."

"It's one the difficulties that the current anti-doping battle has built for itself. Cycling, with the UCI (International Cycling Union governing body) as the lead in this battle, have been pioneers," said Prudhomme.

"The biological passport, the number of tests and the increasingly efficient targetting means cheats are caught faster. We must continue down this route. There's no other way possible."

The USADA report could not have come at a worse time for Tour organisers as they prepare to unveil the route for the 100th edition next year.

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SPORT

Inaugural Women’s Tour de France to start at Eiffel Tower

The route for the inaugural women's Tour de France was unveiled on Thursday with eight stages, embarking from the Eiffel Tower on July 24th next year.

French cyclist Marion Rousse delivers a speech next to Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme during the presentation of the first edition of the Women's Tour de France cycling race.
French cyclist Marion Rousse delivers a speech next to Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme during the presentation of the first edition of the Women's Tour de France cycling race. Photo: Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP.

The first complete edition of the women’s version of cycling’s iconic race starts on the day the 109th edition of the men’s Tour ends.

After a route that winds through northern France, the race culminates in the Planche des Belles Filles climb in the Vosges mountains.

Danish cyclist Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig said she was over the moon to be taking part.

“I want it to be July now so we can get stared,” she said actually jumping up and down.

“The Tour de France is a reference and when you say you are a cyclist people ask about that. Now I can say I race the Tour de France,” she said after the presentation.

MAP: Details of 2022 Tour de France (and Denmark) revealed

Race director Marion Rousse, a former French cycling champion and now a TV commentator, told AFP it would be a varied course that would maintain suspense over the eight days.

“It is coherent in a sporting sense, and we wanted to start from Paris,” she said of the 1,029km run.

“With only eight stages we couldn’t go down to the Alps or the Pyrenees, the transfers would be too long.

“The stages obviously are shorter for the women than for the men’s races. The men can go 225 kilometres. For the women the longest race on our roster is 175km and we even needed special dispensation for that,” she said. “But it’s a course I love.”

Christian Prudhomme, the president of the Tour de France organisers, was equally enthusiastic.

“The fact it sets off from Paris the day the men’s race ends gives the new race a boost because it sets the media up to follow it more easily.

“It also means that with the Tour de France starting on July 1st and the women’s race ending on the 31st, there will be cycling on television every day of July.”

The men’s race is broadcast in around 190 countries.

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