I'm not sure this editorial is so pertinent; for example, Nature bases its appreciation of the French university system on rankings such as Shanghaï's, and believes Paris-Saclay is a true new university, which says it all.
But there is something interesting in its first lines… https://twitter.com/nature/status/1324183657733623808

The first lines of the editorial recalls a 2012 quote of Nicolas Sarkozy, former président de la République, saying — he was defending the various university reforms he implemented (in particular, the Loi sur les libertés et responsabilités des universités — LRU)

“I love watching the Tour de France. We’ve never seen the pack accelerate because those at the rear go faster; the pack accelerates when the leaders accelerate.”

Like all analogies, it is attractive, in so that it conveys most of its meaning without words.

This analogy with cycling and Tour de France is indeed attractive, but troubling, because of its implications to what research is, at least in the mind of a former president.

Cycling is a sport. For many people, it is a pleasant activity, quite affordable. It can also benefit of some competition, when it sustains us to break barriers, promotes effort, etc.

But the Tour de France is something else.
- Enormous amount of money and advertising
- Teams which are managed (cyclists in the pack are not free of what they do during the race)
- Periodic affairs of substance abuse/doping, probably the cause of some strange deaths.

Is it really this that we want for scientific research?
- Yes, we need money, but advertising?
Although they have no money, some of our universities embarked in promoting their brand (such as “Sorbonne”!)

- We sometimes work alone (but we depend of each other), sometimes in teams but those teams should clearnly not be managed in any other way than collective.

- Substance abuse is probably an issue, beyond coffee.
Its close companion is scientific fraud, a serious issue of contemporary research.