A petition to cancel the queen stage of Tour de France 2026 has gathered more than 6,500 signatures so far. The stage is Col de Sarenne, A 1,999m mountain in the French Alps, which will host the penultimate stage on July 25, 2026, and therefore potentially one of the most important for the competition.
Environmental activists fear that the arrival of tens of thousands of visitors in hundreds of vehicles will severely disrupt the ecosystem, where a large number of bird species live and nest, as well as foxes, eagles, and marmots. The flying of helicopters would disrupt while the several pairs of golden eagles (rare and protected birds of prey) whose chicks fledge in July, and the hundreds of tents of fans would crush thousands of flowers.
"The Col de Sarenne is one of those beautiful and rare places where you can still breathe pure air. The organizers of the 2026 Tour de France want to transform the Col de Sarenne into the world's largest stadium", the author of the petition said, that at the time of writing, has nearly 6,500 signatures.
The author of the petition, Matthieu Stelvio, a cyclist himself, already launched the same petition in 2013, when Tour de France also hosted a race in the same location. It gained 12,000 signatured then, but to no effect. Will they listen this time?