A responsible Tour de France

« Cycling Together »
The Tour de France is committing to promoting cycling. Whilst it has many forms (for sport, leisure or for daily transport), for its users cycling embodies tangible benefits, linked to protecting the environment, health, well-being and quick movement, especially in urban areas. As of 2017, the Tour de France is therefore deploying concrete actions that aim to encourage cycling everywhere and for all.
Already, the “Festival of Le Tour”, created five years ago in all the Tour de France stage hosting towns and cities 100 days before the start, incited these municipalities to get their inhabitants into the saddle thanks to different formats of rides adapted to everybody.
This year, the “Le Tour Workshops” will make their appearance, in the guise of a venue near to the starts and finishes of 5 stages (in Troyes, Périgueux, Pau, Le Puy-en-Velay and Marseilles) in which workshops will be set up covering bicycle repair, safety advice, learning to cycle, collection points for visitors and the installation of bicycle parks for Tour de France spectators who have come by bike to see the race. The day’s stage will also be shown on big screens at the sites to the utmost delight of the visitors.
After the school holidays, an awareness raising campaign for children will be undertaken via the “Schoolchildren of Le Tour” scheme.
A “Cycling Town” label will also be created, whilst totems will signal the hotspots of the Tour de France, such as the Col d’Izoard pass, where an inauguration took place on 14th June

«Cycling for the Planet»
Promoting and protecting the landscapes of the Tour de France, optimising waste management, securing local and responsible procurement and reducing transport-related environmental impacts are just some of this programme’s objectives.
For several years already, the Tour de France has been implementing a number of actions (charters “It’s my Tour, I’m sorting”, “It’s my Tour, I’m keeping the road clean”, “Clean gestures, clean holidays”), to the point where it has set up waste collection zones along the roadside for what the riders discard.
The progressive reduction in the number of vehicles, use of alternative transport means in the mountains (chairlifts, cable cars), training in eco-friendly driving for all drivers and speed limits on the entire route all contribute to reducing the environmental footprint of the race.
With the assistance of the BIOTOPE consultantcy, these initiatives are backed up by the performance of a Natura 2000 impact study that aims to assess the impact of the Tour de France on the sensitive areas visited by the event, in order to define measures intended to protect them. This has also been accompanied by a partnership with the French National Museum of Natural History for the last five years in order to promote “the Tour de France of biodiversity”. In addition this year, a new agreement has been signed with the French Federation of  Regional Natural Parks which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. The agreement will give pride of place to the nine National naturals Parks visited by the Tour de France 2017.

 « In the Tracks of Le Tour»
The media exposure of the Tour de France makes it possible to promote the action of certain causes and associations. As such, the following partnerships benefit from the spotlight that Le Tour offers:
•    Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque: 252 children saved since 2003.
•    Handicap’zéro: publication of 5,000 road-books in braille and adapted versions.
•    The French National Centre for Historical Monuments: promotion of monuments.
•    The Foundation for Historical Monuments: preservation of monuments and privately-owned manors and castles.
•    Secours Populaire: welcoming children along the roadsides of Le Tour and in one of the stands on the Champs-Elysées.
•    Competition by the farming union FNSEA: the land art competition in France’s fields.
•    French Federation of Cycling: contribution of € 330,000 for cycling clubs for organization of u15 / u17 / u19 boys and girls races