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Tadej Pogacar’s likely victory parade on the streets of Paris will come sooner on Sunday after the final stage of the Tour de France was shortened due to wildfires elsewhere in France. The stage will now be only 89km long and will start on the Champs-Élysées, where two laps of the avenue will be followed by the now traditional circuits of the Butte Montmartre.
In a joint statement with the prefecture police, the Tour organiser, ASO, said: “The ministry of the interior has decided to redeploy a portion of the internal security forces initially mobilised for the final stage of the Tour de France, in order to reinforce the response efforts in the areas affected by the wildfires.”
Wildfires around the Arcachon lagoon near Bordeaux and around Biscarrosse, in the Landes, have destroyed more than 36,000 hectares of forest. This is the third stage of the Tour to be subjected to prefecture intervention, due to wildfires or a heatwave, in this year’s race.
Resources and the lack of them have also been a topic of debate since Pogacar’s astounding win on Alpe d’Huez on Friday. The four-time champion is now expected to secure a record-equalling fifth title in Paris on Sunday evening after Saturday’s 20th stage was won by Richard Carapaz.
A day after setting a record time up the Alpe’s famous hairpin bends to extend his overall lead, Pogacar could afford to concede 39 seconds to his closest challenger, Remco Evenepoel, on Saturday and will start Sunday’s shortened stage into Paris ahead by six minutes and 26 seconds.
However, there was significant fallout after Friday’s chaotic climb, largely due to the dangerous behaviour of some among the thousands at the roadside. Several incidents, which endangered both riders and fans, rebooted the debate over the safety of Tour stages on the Alpe.
In-race motorbikes, blocked by the crowds, stalled an attack from Evenepoel, while a lack of crowd control led to the Movistar climber Einer Rubio abandoning the race after riding into the rear windscreen of a UAE team car. The crash, which led to Rubio being transported by helicopter to hospital in Grenoble, where he was given 20 stitches for facial injuries, was caused by an unruly spectator falling in front of the car, forcing it to suddenly brake.
“If we had been using cars from 20 years ago, the accident wouldn’t have happened,” the race director, Thierry Gouvenou, said, apparently blaming the braking sensors in the car.
More footage of fans wrestling each other over gifts from the caravane publicitaire and climbing over moving race vehicles – including the Guardian’s – further fuelled the notion of a race that was out of control. The French national champion, Romain Grégoire, said spectators were “so drunk that it was more like being slapped on the arse, than getting pushes”.
Evenepoel’s Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe sports director, Klaas Lodewyck, said: “As long as they’re cheering on the riders and creating a good atmosphere, it’s fine. But when they start punching in side mirrors and banging on the windows, that’s crossing the line.”
On Saturday’s final mountain stage, Pogacar the ogre, as L’Équipe called him, worked to protect the interests of his third-placed UAE teammate, Isaac del Toro. Carapaz, stage winner in Orcières-Merlette and third in Friday’s stage to Alpe d’Huez, was again one of the key animators, attacking on the first climb, the Col de la Croix de Fer, as he sought to consolidate his lead in the King of the Mountains classification.
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Fatigue and frayed nerve endings also played their part in the Tour’s hardest mountain stage, and Ilan Van Wilder, 12th overall when the stage began, crashed out after falling on the descent of the Croix de Fer.
But the spat between Carapaz and the French climber Lenny Martinez, who had been overtaken by Pogacar close to the finish of Friday’s stage to the Alpe, rumbled on into Saturday morning. The pair had engaged in a war of words after the Ecuadorian angrily accused the Frenchman of “cutting in front” of him on the final corner on Friday. Martinez seemed unconcerned.
“I knew I had to be first through the corner,” Martinez said. “We’re not at Club Med – I’m not letting him go first.”
Most of the real drama in the final mountain stage came on the narrow climb of the Col de Sarenne, where Paul Seixas lost ground on Pogacar, Del Toro and Evenepoel.
Visma-Lease a Bike’s Sepp Kuss, descending towards a probable stage win on the Alpe, crashed on the exit of a tunnel and then, moments later, almost toppled into the void on a fast bend. The American came close to disappearing over a cliff edge, but was stopped by crash netting, mounted alongside the road.
His mistake was enough to let the pursuing Carapaz speed past and, despite evident fatigue, the Ecuadorian held on to take his second stage win in three days and secured the polka dot jersey.
