Route du Sud organiser says Tour de France chief Prudhomme has highlighted the problem
Taking over from André Masse as the president of the Route du Sud - Dépêche du Midi, Pierre Caubin has spoken about the big financial challenges facing events in France due to a jump in the cost of police fees for the races.
The amount charged by police forces has increased by a factor of greater than four, with Caubin saying that Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme had spoken to him about the development.
While the Tour is big enough to cope with the change in costs, it will eat into the race’s profits. More seriously, the change could make things difficult for smaller events, many of which have already been under financial pressure.
“The difficulties are everywhere, the responsibilities are overwhelming,” Caubin told La Dépêche. “But when you are passionate [about races], this is not what you think about first. Following the general meeting, we were in Paris at a meeting of the organisers of races. Christian Prudhomme said at this that the Route du Sud - Dépêche du Midi would continue to play a role of a scout for the Tour de France, in view of new stages in that region.
“He also mentioned a worrying problem nowadays with the exorbitant price that will be asked from organizers to ensure the safety of their races. For the Tour, the bill for the police and the gendarmerie increases from €2.5 million today to €12 million tomorrow! It's scary…”
According to Inrng.com, police forces previously charged approximately three euro per hour per person; this will now jump to fourteen euro per hour.
It remains to be seen how this will affect the calendar but with many races already struggling to cover their costs, the news is troubling.