Is the Tour de France Really Sustainable?

The Tour de France came to my hometown of Caen — and with it, thousands of vehicles, generators, and sponsor caravans. For a sport built on the bicycle, I couldn’t help asking: how green is it, really?

In this video, I take you behind the scenes of 2025’s Stage 7’s individual time trial in Caen to explore the contradictions at the heart of the world’s greatest bike race. From the sheer spectacle of the Tour to the quiet environmental concerns it leaves behind, we’ll look at what’s being done — and what still needs to change.

What you’ll see in this video:
The buzz and beauty of Tour day in Caen

Why cycling is the ultimate sustainable sport — and why the Tour struggles to reflect that

A few uncomfortable truths about logistics, waste, and emissions

Signs of real progress: electric cars, better waste sorting, eco-ambitions

The bigger question: can the Tour de France become a leader in sustainability?

I’ve been cycling in France since 2008, and this is one of the most thought-provoking race days I’ve ever witnessed.

00:00 – The Tour Comes to Caen
01:30 – What We Want the Tour de France to be
(A hopeful look at cycling’s green potential and the ideal vision)
02:14 – The Hidden Cost of Race Day
(Reveals the contradiction between image and reality — noise, waste, carbon)
03:34 – Signs of a Greener Future
(Explores progress: electric cars, local initiatives, organiser pledges)
04:37 – Can the Tour Lead Real Change?
(Final reflection: the Tour’s potential to inspire transformation beyond sport)
5:36 Join my on my French Cycling Adventures

What do you think? Can the Tour de France go green — or is it too big to change? Drop your thoughts in the comments.

📺 Watch next:
[🔗 How to watch the Paris Roubaix. [ https://youtu.be/fEtlA1hJJX8]
[🔗 Cycling in France Playlist [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPPfQPwC5Ty5Ohxv1e4NhDSIkjqRzJck4]

👍 Like, 💬 comment, and subscribe for more stories from the road — every week from France.

#TourDeFrance #Sustainability #CyclingInFrance #Caen #TDF2025 #GreenCycling #ClimateAction #BikeLife

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The Tour to France is the biggest bike race 
in the world, but behind the carbon frames, there’s a whole lot of carbon footprint. So, here’s the question. Can the most iconic 
cycling event on Earth also become its greenest? Is the Tour de France truly sustainable? We’re 
going to go and find out today at the Caen time trial. We’re heading down on sustainable transport 
on our bikes. The tour to France came to Caen in 2025, my town, my local roads, and just for 
one day, it became the center of the cycling universe. Everything changed. The quiet roads 
were closed, the cafes overflowed, barriers lined the pavements, and the unmistakable hum of 
something big echoed through the air. The crowds, the colors, the helicopters, it’s electric. The 
tour isn’t just a race. It’s a rolling theater. An entire traveling world with its own rhythm, 
its own language, and its own soundtrack. We did our bit, too. Rode out early to the town 
center, cheered at the roadside, soaked in the atmosphere. There’s this buzz like you’re part 
of something much bigger than just a bike race. And then just as quickly as it arrived, it was 
gone. The riders, the noise, the vans, the fans packed up and moved on to the next town. Because 
here’s the thing, we don’t just love the Tour for its speed or its stars or even its history. We 
love it because it represents something human, a rider, a bike, a road, powered by effort, 
not fuel. That’s the magic. At its core, cycling is the most sustainable sport on the 
planet. No engines, no emissions, just legs, lungs, and landscapes. And we want the tour to 
reflect that, to be more than a moving billboard. To prove that a global sporting event watched 
by millions, traveling thousands of kilometers, can still lead the way in sustainability. 
Because if the tour with all its size, complexity, and reach can go green, then surely 
anything can. But here’s the problem. On that day, Caen didn’t just become a celebration of 
cycling. It became a mirror of the whole tour. Thousands of vehicles, endless sponsor 
caravans, helicopters circling overhead, diesel generators humming behind the barriers, 
plastic giveaways by the handful. For a few hours, my hometown turned into a high-speed logistics 
hub packed with trucks, noise, and packaging. all built around an event that’s supposed to be 
about the simplicity of the bicycle. Yes, it was exciting, but it was also exhausting. And watching 
it all from the sidelines, I couldn’t help but wonder how much of this is really necessary. Here 
comes the next rider. How many people are with it? There’s a rider. And there is one, two, three, 
four vehicles with him. This is a contradiction. A race powered by muscle but carried on the back of 
fossil fuels. Caen is my adopted town and seeing what it took to host just one day of the tour. 
Well, it makes you realize how much is happening every single day across the whole country. 
Multiply by 21 stages and suddenly the carbon cost of this green sport looks very different. But 
to be fair, change is happening slowly, quietly, but it’s there. I spotted electric teen cars, 
fewer plastic giveaways. Some towns, including Caen, put real effort into waste sorting, shuttle 
buses, and making cycling the best way to arrive. The tour organizers have pledged carbon neutrality 
by 2030. And while it’s easy to be skeptical, you also get the sense that people want this to 
work. The pressure is building from inside the peloton, from the fans, from the host towns who 
don’t want to see piles of rubbish left behind. It’s not just about cutting emissions. It’s 
about rethinking the whole system. How we move, how we celebrate, and how we race. The tour has 
always been about pushing limits of endurance, of speed, of what’s possible on two wheels. Maybe now 
it’s time to push the limits in a different way, towards something cleaner, simpler, and smarter. 
I’d love to know what changes you noticed during the tour this year, or any bright ideas for making 
the race greener. Drop them in the comments below. Because if the Tour de France can go green, 
if this vast historic, wildly complex race can clean up its act, then it sends a message far 
beyond cycling. It says that even the biggest traditions can evolve, that you can still tell 
the same story, the same suffering, drama, and glory without leaving a trail of waste behind. It 
becomes more than a race. It becomes a symbol of change, of doing things better, not just faster. 
The Tour will always be part of cycling soul, but maybe now it has a new mountain to climb. One 
that’s not marked by altitude, but by intentions. And if it gets there, the view could be even more 
spectacular. If you’ve enjoyed this alternative look at the con stage of the Tour to France and 
want to see more cycling stories with a twist, check out some of my other videos. Leave 
a comment below. Do you think The tour can really go green or is the race just too big to 
change? And if you want to follow my journey, subscribe. I share the view from the 
road every week right here in France.