A fan flies the French flag on the slopes of Mont Ventoux (Image credit: Fotoreporter Sirotti)
The 13th stage of the Tour de France will be held, despite the terrorist attack in Nice, Thursday night. The individual time trial runs 37.5 km from Bourg-Saint-Andéol to Caverne du Pont d'Arc.
A moment of silence was held before the first rider took off.
Race organiser Christian Prudhomme issued a statement which said:
“It’s a day of mourning for France and the Tour de France.
We know Nice very well. Every year in March we organize Paris-Nice.
We’ve had an emergency meeting with the prefect of Ardeche, the police forces, the gendarmerie, representatives of the GIGN in connection with the highest state authorities.
In a few minutes we’ll have a minute of silence at the start village and again this evening as a tribute to the victims. Our thoughts are with the bereaved families. We extend our condolences to everyone affected by the tragedy.
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We wondered about having a race today or not. But in agreement with the state authorities, we believe that the race must go on and we shouldn’t give in to the pressure of people who would like us to change our lifestyle.
The Tour de France will go on in sobriety and dignity.”
French police said that security will remain unchanged, “because it is already maximum since the beginning of the Tour de France,” reports franceblue.fr. More than 500 gendarmes will be joined by special squadrons, firefighters and various other agents.
The publicity caravan will run as usual, but silently. Follow the coverage of the stage, here.
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