DUTCH police said yesterday that they still plan to protest for better working conditions at the Tour de France this weekend but will not stop riders as they cross a bridge in Rotterdam.

Police unions and Dutch authorities have reached a deal to halt police plans to carry out traffic checks on Rotterdam’s landmark Erasmus Bridge during Sunday’s stage of the cycle race from Utrecht to the southern province of Zeeland.

Rotterdam officials have given officers permission to protest in the city but “there will not be a traffic control” of the convoy of advertising vans that precedes the peloton.

The three-week Tour starts tomorrow with an individual time-trial in Utrecht and passes through Rotterdam the following day.