Tour de France eco debate
Concern over environmental pros and cons of the great bike race
Cycling is eco-friendly, but big bike races like the Tour de France raise many questions about their carbon footprint and wider impact
Is the Tour de France good for the planet? It certainly ought to be. It is the world’s greatest sporting event (The Olympic Games are not a single event). It lasts a month. It is seen live and in the flesh by - conservatively - ten million people. It inspired me to get into serious cycling, and must have inspired thousands more.
Of course the Tour has a chequered history. The debate about drugs really belongs on Suite’s Bike Racing pages, and anyway there’s another issue that concerns me now.
180 cyclists will start the Tour and on past form about 130 will complete it. Each of the 20 teams will have at least three cars and a team bus. Then there are race officials, press and TV and so on. The publicity cavalcade that precedes the race has at least 200 vehicles. Although the Tour’s own website is coy about this, there must be well in excess of 500 vehicles directly associated with the race - at least three for every rider and probably more. That’s no mean carbon footprint, before you even think about the thousands of spectators’ cars, camper-vans and so on.
At least, unlike such ‘sports’ as motor-racing, the Tour can claim to do some good by promoting cycling generally. If it makes cycling glamorous and even sexy, and above all if it encourages people, especially young people, to take up cycling, then this could offset the Tour’s own environmental impact many times over.
The 2007 Tour starts in London, and London’s mayor Ken Livingstone says, ‘With all the background noise about health and environment, the Tour de France gives us the chance to really make people think about cycling.’
Sounds good, but the case is not proven. The Tour may inspire some people to take up bike racing, but how many have been inspired to leave the car at home and cycle to work? Does the Tour have any impact on people’s wider behaviour? How many Tour heroes do anything to promote cycling generally?
It’s a tough question, and if anyone knows of any evidence it would be good to hear from you.
