Tour de France Boss Prudhomme Says Cheating Exists Everywhere: In Sport, Business And Politics

Tadej Pogačar is about to make it five Tour de France wins, but Christian Prudhomme is on a good run too – about to finish his 20th Tour de France as the directeur.

Politician meets organizer, spokesperson and charmer; he is the man behind the big race.

This boss does everything from waving the start flag from the car in front of the bunch to wining and dining dignitaries, making big decisions – and answering questions from media about the race’s burning topics.

News of night-time testing has dominated the Tour de France this week since it emerged that Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar were tested at 2 a.m. and 5 a.m respectively ahead of stage 15 to Plateau de Solaison by the International Testing Agency (ITA).

Does he believe testing between 11pm and 6am, outside the normal designated window, is necessary and fair?

“I understand the emotions of the riders, but we fought for years to have an independent testing agency,” Prudhomme tells Velo before the start of stage 17 Wednesday. “It’s here now.”

“We or I don’t know when the tests are done and not only that, but I don’t have the right to know because it’s an independent agency mandated by the UCI. So I don’t want to interfere in what they are doing.”

Pushed to answer the same question again, he added: “The only question I’d pose is whether this control would happen in another sport.”

Doping in the Tour bunch

Perhaps being queried about testing methods rather than outright doping is a nice problem for 65-year-old Prudhomme to have: starting out as Tour director in 2007, he has had to surf doping scandals and kick out riders in the past.

Asked whether he believes doping still exists in the Tour peloton, he replied: “Cheating exists everywhere: in business, politics, sport.

“The only thing is that question is pretty much only posed in cycling or in athletics a bit, it’s not brought up in the big sports. There is no perfect world – if there is, it’s upstairs [ie. in heaven].”

Short-term Tour climate change solutions

The temperatures on the Tour have also been far from ideal. The sun has been a constant, often scorching champion through the race.The hottest first week in race history saw the mercury reaching over 100 degrees.

Nearby wildfires also led to advice for fans to not come to the final 45 kilometers of stage three due to nearby wildfires and a fire risk, a shortening of stage 9 in Corrèze for extreme heat and another on the race’s last day into Paris, owing to redistrubuted internal resources to fight fires in western France’s Gironde region.

“What’s clear is that climate change is real,” Prudhomme says. “Right now, we don’t know what weather it’ll be on 14 July 2027, 2028, 2029. That’s where the complexity lies.”

The Tour has a task on its hand to fight the inevitable. Prudhomme has indicated that the Tour has to stay in July for now. So, what realistic changes could be made in coming years?

Short stages help, he suggests. “If you look at the length of stages 10 years ago, you had seven, eight, nine stages with more than 190km. This year, there’s just two over that mark.

“Next will be a bit longer with the grand départ of Edinburgh, there’ll already be two in the first three days. So at the same time, you have shorter stages and the riders go faster, so the time spent under the sun is shorter.”

Seeking the dark side of the mountain

“In the reconaissances that Thierry Gouvenou [the sporting director] and the teams lead, we’ll also look for shaded mountains, something we haven’t done before,” he adds.

“In the past, it was a case of ‘we’ll seek out the most open mountain route possible for TV broadcast.’

“Maybe for the Grand Colombier next time, it will be not be the magnificent hairpin bends, but the other side which is a lot steeper but in the shade.”

Prudhomme mentioned other adaptations they have made, including a supplementary motorbike fraîcheur, which supplies water to thirsty breakaways, another vehicle with hundreds of bidons and opening up feeding possibilities wherever they can in the race, in tandem with the UCI.

Bigging up ‘magnificent’ Quinn Simmons

The 2026 Tour route was built in hope of a crescendo on Alpe d’Huez, but the race was done and dusted long before the queen stage.

Prudhomme was unsurprised that Tadej Pogačar, the logical favourite, has all but won his fifth title in dominant fashion.

However, Remco Evenepoel’s performance has had him sat up and watching. “I was very impressed, very surprised by Solaison and very impressed by his [stage 16] TT,” Prudhomme says. “Even if he’s a three-time world time-trial champion and Olympic champion, it was the manner in which he won.”

Lidl-Trek rider Quinn Simmons, up the road in many attacks and helping leaders Mads Pedersen, Mattias Skjelmose and Juan Ayuso, also has Prudhomme waxing lyrical.

“We’re used to seeing him escape and being very generous in his efforts. I’ll admit that he surprised and really impressed me on the stage [15] to Plateau de Solaison. I saw him attack on the Montée de Salève on those steep slopes, it was extraordinary.”

“There’s this guy who brings together people with his moustache, with his fl–… I was going to say American flag, I made a slip but his national champion’s jersey is really that.

“We saw the masses around him, Simmons in front, it was magnificent.”

Prudhomme bowled over by Alsace ecstacy

As for what he believes to be the most beautiful stage of the race, he plumped for stage 14 to Le Markstein out in France’s east.

“There were people everywhere – on the smallest rise, even the unclassified Col du Hundsruck, bringing that emotion,” he says. Stage winner Tadej Pogačar also remarked on the exceptional crowds post-race.

“Honestly, there were so many that I could close my eyes and it was Yorkshire,” Prudhomme says, referring to the 2014 grand départ in the United Kingdom.

“In 20 years of being the Tour director, I’ve seen that number of people at the grand départs in Yorkshire and Copenhagen. But in France, I didn’t have quite that memory.”

Evidently, the French fans have been unimpeachable. As for the French riders: it is a different story. Okay, while teenage sensation Paul Seixas is set to surge to fourth place on his debut, there is work to be done.

Prudhomme added wryly: “Imagine a French stage winner in Paris … it’s nice that you don’t ask me any questions on French riders who risk scoring a zero [in stage wins] for the first time [this century].”