VIDEO. Solutions for a greener tour of France with the cyclist Guillaume Martin

For Guillaume Martin, the exercise of his profession generates much more pollution than a simple average citizen. Not for the use of him but rather for all the parameters that revolve around him. “These are really complicated topics and which perhaps can only be answered with compromises. Not by completely dreaming of a zero carbon footprint, but by reducing the impact we have. There is a reflection from the organizers of the Tour de France, things that I see changing little by little, since my debut as a professional, but maybe not fast enough”.

Towards a cleaner Tour de France?

If today the vast majority of the platoon manage their own waste, it happens that the garbage is still thrown into the countryside, where there is no one to pick it up. For a more eco-responsible tour of France, Guillaume Martin imagines the procession of vehicles for the reduced tour because while some are necessary for security, others such as the press or VIPs are not essential in his opinion, although this is a source of additional income .

It also evokes a return to the old Tour de France routes which would make it possible to limit a lot of time between two stages. “We should perhaps also go back to the routes as they were at the beginning, i.e. we arrived in one city, the next day, we left this city to go to another, and finally there were no very long transfers between each stage, which are tiring for us. And then, this means that all vehicles have to move every time. And then continue to raise awareness within the group itself, among the runners. For some years there have been collection areas set up by the organizers, where we can throw our waste that will be collected. It is an effort of the organizers and the minimum is to respect these areas.