Tour de France partners up for environment

At the presentation of the race in Paris last Thursday, Tour de France organiser ASO was pleased to announce a new partnership with French 'Eco-Emballages', a company in charge of selective packaging waste collection in France, an important step in the process of recycling. "It's a subject which we really care about," former Race director Jean-Marie Leblanc told Cyclingnews at the eve of the event. "It's very important to us to come to better terms with the amount of waste the Tour de France generates, and Eco-Emballages will help us doing that. We are working on solutions right now." Eco-Emballages will also partner the Paris-Nice cycling race.

Leblanc also revealed that the Tour de France had not lost any one of its partners this year. "Skoda is still our partner," he said. "And we have been able to bring three new sponsors aboard for next year, amongst which Eco-Emballages."