The first chapter of the Tour closed this Sunday in Denmark. Once again, as in Leeds, Utrecht, Dusseldorf, even in a world capital like London, the local population has thrown themselves into the race. Approximate calculations indicated the presence of some 600,000 people on the route on Saturday. And a television audience share of around 60%. A significant local fact: in Nyborg, the goal of the second stage, 1,500 people signed up to volunteer and that represents 10% of the population!
The love of the Tour is not born now in Denmark, in the same way that the use of the bicycle is sacred in Copenhagen, with a census of 750,000 bikes for a population of 638,000 people.
While the France TV broadcast continues to ask whether or not the Tour should be limited to the French hexagon (with the passing of the years there are fewer and fewer who still defend that border closure) the three grand tours do not hesitate in the least. In this 2022 the Giro began in Hungary and the Vuelta will start in the Netherlands on August 19. The Italian test organized its start in Jerusalem in 2018 and the Tour, many years ago, came to study the technical possibility of taking its first stage to New York. For economic reasons, without a doubt, but also because of the enormous multiplier effect for cycling fans.
Entire families storm the Tour road as if it were a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And maybe it is. The hiring of the Tour in Denmark has cost around 5.5 million euros (there is a confidentiality clause), but this figure must practically be multiplied by three with all the associated expenses that it entails, in infrastructures, personnel, conditioning works … In the past, the central obstacles of roundabouts have been razed to facilitate the passage of the Tour.
At the moment, the French round already has Bilbao for 2023 and Florence in 2024. The so-called grand départ of the Tour is a popular party that does not involve, by far, the investment of other top-tier sporting events. The sailing America’s Cup, for example, will cost 70 million euros, according to the administrations.
