Christian Prudhomme | |
|---|---|
 Prudhomme in 2018. | |
| Born | 11 November 1960 |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Title | General Director of the Tour de France |
| Term | 2007 –present |
| Predecessor | Jean-Marie Leblanc |
Christian Prudhomme (born 11 November 1960) is a French journalist and general director of the Tour de France since 2007.
Born in Paris, Prudhomme studied at the ESJ school of journalism in Lille from 1983 to 1985. He joined RTL (Radio-Télévision Luxembourg) in 1985 with the encouragement of his tutor, Michel Cellier, who was RTL correspondent in the Nord region. He joined RTL on trial.
RTL did not keep him on and Prudhomme moved to RFO and then on 3 August 1987 to the television channel, La Cinq, as a sports reporter under Pierre Cangioni. He reported in particular on his favourite sports: cycling, rugby, athletics, and skiing.
Of those, his favourite was cycling and he reported regularly on the Midi Libre and Paris–Nice stage races. In 2002 he said of cycling:
Prudhomme became head of sport at La Cinq. He occasionally presented sports bulletins at midday. In 1992 that failed through lack of funds and Prudhomme freelanced for a year before joining the news channel, LCI. He had barely agreed to join when Eugène Saccomano, head of sport at the radio station Europe1 invited him to replace Jean-René Godart, who was leaving to join the television network, France 2.
In 1998 he was in at the start of a cable channel, L'Équipe TV, television companion to the daily sports paper and run by Amaury Group, whose subsidiary, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), is the organiser of the Tour de France. He became editor-in-chief.
In 2000 he joined France Télévisions to modernise its sports programme, Stade 2. He commentated at the Tour de France for France Télévisions in 2000, alongside the former winner, Bernard Thévenet.
In 2007, Prudhomme replaced Jean-Marie Leblanc as director of the Tour de France, having been his assistant director for three years.
Under Prudhomme, the Tour has strengthened its opposition to doping. In 2007, two teams – Astana and Cofidis – withdrew from the Tour after doping scandals. In 2008, the ASO withdrew the Tour from the aegis of the UCI to implement its own anti-doping regime. Astana was not invited and, that same year, Saunier Duval-Scott withdrew after Riccardo Riccò's test for third-generation synthetic EPO. Prudhomme suggested that the positive test was part of a doping programme organised by the team manager. [2]
During the 2020 Tour de France, Prudhomme tested positive for COVID-19. As a result, he had to self-isolate for seven days, and was not in the Tour's lead car for stages 10 to 16. [3]
The 2006 Tour de France was the 93rd edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between the 1st and the 23rd of July. It was won by Óscar Pereiro following the disqualification of Floyd Landis. Due to the United States Anti-Doping Agency announcing on August 24, 2012, that they had disqualified Lance Armstrong, a former teammate of Landis, from all of his results since August 1, 1998, including his seven Tour de France titles from 1999 to 2005, this is also the first Tour to have an overall winner since 1998. By terms of margin of victory the 2006 Tour was the 3rd closest of all time.
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The 2007 Tour de France the 94th running of the race, took place from 7 to 29 July. The Tour began with a prologue in London, and ended with the traditional finish in Paris. Along the way, the route also passed through Belgium and Spain. It was won by Spanish rider Alberto Contador.
Leonardo Piepoli is a former Italian professional road racing cyclist. He most recently rode for Saunier Duval–Scott on the UCI ProTour, but had his contract suspended in July 2008 during the Tour de France amid allegations of the use of the blood boosting drug EPO in the team. He was later suspended for two years, which effectively ended his career.
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The 2008 Tour de France was the 95th running of the race. The event took place from 5 to 27 July. Starting in the French city of Brest, the tour entered Italy on the 15th stage and returned to France during the 16th, heading for Paris, its regular final destination, which was reached in the 21st stage. The race was won by Carlos Sastre.
Riccardo Riccò is an Italian professional road bicycle racer, who is suspended from all competition until 2024. He was previously ejected from the 2008 Tour de France for doping violations and suspended. Riccò returned to competition in late 2010, but in February 2011 he was fired by his team, Vacansoleil–DCM, after he became seriously ill allegedly through a self-administered autologous blood transfusion. He then signed to UCI Continental team Meridiana–Kamen.
The 2007 Tour de France was affected by a series of scandals and speculations related to doping. By the end of the Tour, two cyclists were dismissed for failing tests and the wearer of the yellow jersey was voluntarily retired by his team for lying about his whereabouts and missing doping tests. A fourth rider was confirmed to having used doping while in a training session prior to the 2007 Tour and a fifth rider failed tests late in the race, with his result being officially announced just after the end of the Tour. During the competition, two teams were asked to withdraw after at least one member was found to have doped.
The 2008 Giro d'Italia was the 91st running of the Giro d'Italia, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It began in Palermo on 10 May and ended in Milan on 1 June. Twenty-two teams entered the race, which was won by Spaniard Alberto Contador of the Astana cycling team. Second and third respectively were Italians Riccardo Riccò and Marzio Bruseghin.
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In 2009 a number of prominent riders returned to professional cycling. Ivan Basso, Floyd Landis and Michele Scarponi had finished a suspension. Bjorn Leukemans was without a team for over a year due to doping-related allegations, which were proven to be ungrounded. Most notably, seven time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong returned after a three-and-half year break, starting his season as a Astana-rider in the Tour Down Under.
The 2008 season for the Astana cycling team began in January with the Tour Down Under and ended in October with the Giro di Lombardia. As a UCI ProTour team, they were automatically invited and obliged to attend every event in the UCI ProTour.
The 2012 Tour de France was the 99th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It started in the Belgian city of Liège on 30 June and finished on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 22 July. The Tour consisted of 21 stages, including an opening prologue, and covered a total distance of 3,496.9 km (2,173 mi). As well as the prologue, the first two stages took place in Belgium, and one stage finished in Switzerland. Bradley Wiggins won the overall general classification, and became the first British rider to win the Tour. Wiggins's teammate Chris Froome placed second, and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas–Cannondale) was third.
The 2018 Tour de France was the 105th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's three Grand Tours. The 3,351 km (2,082 mi)-long race consisted of 21 stages, starting on 7 July in Noirmoutier-en-l'Île, in western France, and concluding on 29 July with the Champs-Élysées stage in Paris. A total of 176 riders from 22 teams participated in the race. The overall general classification was won by Geraint Thomas of Team Sky. Tom Dumoulin placed second, with Thomas's teammate and four-time Tour winner Chris Froome coming third.
The 2023 Tour de France will be the 110th edition of the Tour de France. It will start in Bilbao, Spain on 1 July and end with the final stage at Champs-Élysées, Paris on 23 July.
Media related to Christian Prudhomme at Wikimedia Commons
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