After days of severe civil unrest in dozens of French cities, the Tour de France organisers have promised the race will remain ‘focussed’ and ‘attentive’ when the Tour returns to the home country on Monday afternoon.
193 kilometres long, stage 3 of the 2023 Tour starts in Amorebieta in the Basque Country and crosses the French border this afternoon at Hendaye at around 16:00 CET, finishing in Bayonne after 49 kilometres on home soil.
Outbreaks of disturbances appeared to be easing on Sunday evening compared to earlier in the week, with overnight arrests in France reportedly dropping to 150 compared to 700 the night before. A 24-year-old firefighter died when putting out several cars that had been set alight in the town of Seine-Saint-Denis, north of Paris, but it is not clear if the incident was connected to the unrest.
“We are following this all very closely and we remain focussed and attentive,” Tour de France assistant director, Pierre-Yves Thouault, told L’Équipe Monday.
Thouault said he was in near-constant contact with the French regional authorities, with the Ministry of the Interior and with the French police forces responsible for looking after the Tour’s security.
Some 23,000 gendarmes are usually in place to handle the Tour’s security, and police said earlier last week that it would be increasing its number of outriders ahead of the race to ensure protesters would not block the route. As a result, two motorbikes from the French gendarmerie's intervention brigade will now ride ahead of the Tour de France peloton as an extra measure to mitigate the risk of protests disrupting the race.
"The two motorbikes will work as a duo," a gendarmerie captain told team managers, according to Reuters. "Our goal is to be able to bring an immediate response and avoid the race being stopped."
The 2022 Tour de France was disrupted by climate change activists and more are expected this year. Earlier this year, French environmental group Dernière Rénovation said that they would again be protesting at this year's Tour. On stage 3 of the Dauphiné this June, the race was briefly suspended halfway through when protestors blocked the route, but it passed off without incident.
Contacted by L’Equipe, the regional authorities for Pyrènèes-Atlantique, the part of southwest France where the finish city of Bayonne is located, said that security would be in place “using the forces of law and order” and that heightened police vigilance “given the current situation” would remain in effect. However, beyond those extra measures already planned since last week, there would not be any additional increase in protection of the race.
