Nicholas Roche would love the Tour de France to go ahead as scheduled - even if fans are forced to stay away due to Covid-19.
But the veteran Irish cyclist believes there are plenty of reasons why his sport's most famous race might not be staged from June 27 to July 19.
The French Minister for Sport, Roxana Maracineanu, claimed this week that this year's race could potentially take place behind closed doors.
Roche told Mirror Sport: "The Tour de France is a lot more than a bike race, and without the fans it won't be the same.
"But I'd love to race, to go back doing my job. If the option is there, why not?
"I read the quotes from the Minister, saying it could be a solution to go behind closed doors. When you're doing something for the first time, it's very hard to see how it would turn out.
"I'd be more interested to see if France would tolerate foreigners coming back into the country at that point, fans and athletes."
France has been put on lockdown for 30 days and Monaco resident Roche has been abiding by French government rules from the start.
"In Spain it's been 30 days, in Italy it is the same," the 35-year-old said. "But the Germans and Dutch have been allowed to go training five or six hours on the road each day.
"Here, we are very limited in terms of what we can do.
"We're talking about one of the worst diseases to hit us in modern history, one that will cost countries billions - if I was a Minister, what would I be thinking about tolerating the return of so many after a lockdown?
"Would you have people only at the start and finish areas? How do you police it, do you stop people coming out to show their support from their gardens?
"People have accommodation booked from a long time ago, hotels are depending on that tourism, cities have paid a lot of money to host the start or finish of stages.
"It's very complicated, but there's still a long way to go and I'd love to race. It wouldn't be a problem if the fans had to stay away, as long as they can see it for free on whatever platform - TV, iPad or whatever."
