Tadej Poga\u010dar is about to make it five Tour de France wins, but Christian Prudhomme is on a good run too \u2013 about to finish his 20th Tour de France as the directeur.<\/em><\/p>\n Politician meets organizer, spokesperson and charmer; he is the man behind the big race.<\/p>\n 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 \u2013 and answering questions from media about the race\u2019s burning topics.<\/p>\n News of night-time testing has dominated the Tour de France this week since it emerged that Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Poga\u010dar 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).<\/p>\n Does he believe testing between 11pm and 6am, outside the normal designated window, is necessary and fair?<\/p>\n \u201cI understand the emotions of the riders, but we fought for years to have an independent testing agency,\u201d Prudhomme tells Velo <\/i>before the start of stage 17 Wednesday. \u201cIt\u2019s here now.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe or I don\u2019t know when the tests are done and not only that, but I don\u2019t have the right to know because it\u2019s an independent agency mandated by the UCI. So I don\u2019t want to interfere in what they are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Pushed to answer the same question again, he added: \u201cThe only question I\u2019d pose is whether this control would happen in another sport.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Asked whether he believes doping still exists in the Tour peloton, he replied: \u201cCheating exists everywhere: in business, politics, sport.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only thing is that question is pretty much only posed in cycling or in athletics a bit, it\u2019s not brought up in the big sports. There is no perfect world \u2013 if there is, it\u2019s upstairs [ie. in heaven].\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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 Corr\u00e8ze for extreme heat and another on the race\u2019s last day into Paris, owing to redistrubuted internal resources to fight fires in western France\u2019s Gironde region.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s clear is that climate change is real,\u201d Prudhomme says. \u201cRight now, we don\u2019t know what weather it\u2019ll be on 14 July 2027, 2028, 2029. That\u2019s where the complexity lies.\u201d<\/p>\n The Tour has a task on its hand to fight the inevitable. Prudhomme has indicated\u00a0that the Tour has to stay in July for now. So, what realistic changes could be made in coming years?<\/p>\n Short stages help, he suggests. \u201cIf you look at the length of stages 10 years ago, you had seven, eight, nine stages with more than 190km. This year, there\u2019s just two over that mark.<\/p>\n \u201cNext will be a bit longer with the grand d\u00e9part<\/em> of Edinburgh, there\u2019ll 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn the reconaissances that Thierry Gouvenou [the sporting director] and the teams lead, we\u2019ll also look for shaded mountains, something we haven\u2019t done before,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the past, it was a case of \u2018we\u2019ll seek out the most open mountain route possible for TV broadcast.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Prudhomme mentioned other adaptations they have made, including a supplementary motorbike fra\u00eecheur<\/i>, 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.<\/p>\n The 2026 Tour route was built in hope of a crescendo on Alpe d\u2019Huez, but the race was done and dusted long before the queen stage.<\/p>\n Prudhomme was unsurprised that Tadej Poga\u010dar, the logical favourite, has all but won his fifth title in dominant fashion.<\/p>\n However, Remco Evenepoel\u2019s performance has had him sat up and watching. \u201cI was very impressed, very surprised by Solaison and very impressed by his [stage 16] TT,\u201d Prudhomme says. \u201cEven if he\u2019s a three-time world time-trial champion and Olympic champion, it was the manner in which he won.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re used to seeing him escape and being very generous in his efforts. I\u2019ll admit that he surprised and really impressed me on the stage [15] to Plateau de Solaison. I saw him attack on the Mont\u00e9e de Sal\u00e8ve on those steep slopes, it was extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s this guy who brings together people with his moustache, with his fl\u2013\u2026 I was going to say American flag, I made a slip but his national champion\u2019s jersey is really that.<\/p>\n \u201cWe saw the masses around him, Simmons in front, it was magnificent.\u201d<\/p>\n 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\u2019s east.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were people everywhere \u2013 on the smallest rise, even the unclassified Col du Hundsruck, bringing that emotion,\u201d he says. Stage winner Tadej Poga\u010dar also remarked on the exceptional crowds post-race.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, there were so many that I could close my eyes and it was Yorkshire,\u201d Prudhomme says, referring to the 2014 grand d\u00e9part in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 20 years of being the Tour director, I\u2019ve seen that number of people at the grand d\u00e9parts<\/em> in Yorkshire and Copenhagen. But in France, I didn\u2019t have quite that memory.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Prudhomme added wryly: \u201cImagine a French stage winner in Paris \u2026 it\u2019s nice that you don\u2019t ask me any questions on French riders who risk scoring a zero [in stage wins] for the first time [this century].\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france\/tour-de-france-boss-talks-doping-and-how-the-race-will-adapt-to-climate-change\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2285815189-scaled.jpg”] Andy McGrath Updated July 26, 2026 07:40AM Tadej Poga\u010dar is about to make it five Tour de France wins, but Christian Prudhomme is on a good run too \u2013 about to finish his 20th Tour de France as the directeur. Politician meets organizer, spokesperson and charmer; he is the man behind the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2062888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2062888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2062888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2062888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2062888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2062888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2062888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Doping in the Tour bunch<\/h2>\n
Short-term Tour climate change solutions<\/h2>\n
![\"UAE](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2285176858-720x480.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Seeking the dark side of the mountain<\/h2>\n
![\"Grand](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Z8B_8746-720x450.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Bigging up \u2018magnificent\u2019 Quinn Simmons<\/h2>\n
![\"Quinn](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Z8A_7492-720x480.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Prudhomme bowled over by Alsace ecstacy<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Z8A_2465-720x450.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")