“We don’t want to damage France”: 800 trees felled on the roads of the Tour de France, Christian Prudhomme defends himself

This is a controversial subject. 872 trees will be felled or are in the process of being felled on the road which leads to the Ballon d’Alsace, a route that the Tour de France riders will take on July 18, as part of the 14th stage between Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin) and Markstein (Haut-Rhin). A project, strongly criticized, but independent of the will of the race organizers.

“Eight hundred trees being cut down shocks everyone, including me. But it was a decision that was taken in 2023 and at that time, no one knew that we would come in 2026,” said Christian Prudhomme, director of the Tour de France, to the Alsace newspaper, Thursday April 30.

In the columns of Libération, the Haut-Rhin prefecture, in fact, specified that the construction site had been “planned for a long time” and that it had been “accelerated in the light of greater expected attendance by the public in this area”. In total, 1,071 trees will be felled over nearly 4.5 kilometers, with the aim of securing the road axis, with or without Tour de France.

“If securing the roads can constitute a legitimate objective, the period of the work and the methods used raise questions,” several environmental associations reacted in a press release.

“We don’t want to damage France”

“Of course, the Tour de France will go through that and it will accelerate the work,” admitted Christian Prudhomme. “But we’re never going to ask for anything, obviously. Afterwards, this work, I imagine that it is necessary. The Tour therefore arrives when security measures are taken. But maybe they should have been taken before? I don’t know anything about it. We never ask to build roads,” added Christian Prudhomme.

The former journalist went even further, recalling that “the Tour thrives on the beauties of France”. “We don’t want to damage France. The success of the Tour is the champions but it is also our country, the beauty of our country,” he concluded.