The Tour de France is to be raced from Aug. 29 to Sept. 20, organizers announced on Wednesday, postponing cycling’s flagship event, which was originally scheduled to start on June 27, due to a lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new dates follow French President Emmanuel Macron’s extension of a ban on large public gatherings until the middle of July.
The news came as a relief to professional cycling teams and fans, with four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome welcoming a “light at the end of the tunnel” for those suffering in lockdown.
Photo: Reuters
The decision moves the three-week race out of its traditional slot in the summer, when roadside crowds of about 12 million would be expected to gather in festive spirit.
It would now finish on the same day tennis’ postponed French Open starts, giving a worrying indication of a potential autumn fixture pileup as more sports seek to reschedule suspended events.
Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme told reporters that the new start was based on a double rationale.
“We wanted to be as far away from the pandemic as possible,” Prudhomme said. “The president put a July 14 date on public gatherings, but it seemed more reasonable to us to allow the riders time to get into peak condition.”
While the dates have changed, the original route remains intact, starting in Nice and finishing in Paris.
“The Tour is still the Tour. All the challenges we set remain intact,” he said of the hotly anticipated climb-laden route that rarely strays far from the mountains.
Froome said that the news came as a boost for all lovers of the sport.
“It’s the news we have all been waiting for, some light at the end of the tunnel,” the British rider said.
Froome’s Team Ineos teammate Geraint Thomas, who won the Tour de France in 2018, echoed his thoughts.
“It’s nice to have that date in your head to at least work towards,” Welshman Thomas said on Instagram.
The new date solves a series of problems after organizers faced up to the reality that the race could never take place on the original dates.
Rescheduling means top cycling teams would survive economically, social distancing would be easier without massive crowds and the 4,500-strong Tour de France rolling caravan can be more easily put up in hotels outside of August.
With the Tokyo Games and soccer’s Euro 2020 both delayed by a year, the Tour de France is the last major event remaining on the summer sports calendar.
Elite cycling will breathe a huge sigh of relief, as the Tour de France accounts for most of its earnings.
The Tour de France would provide a daily fix for deprived sports addicts the world over, with millions of armchair fans able to tune in daily, including those still working from home.
The change gives organizer Amoury Sport Organization time to stage the warm-up Criterium du Dauphine — held annually ahead of the Tour, but postponed this year as the spring season was swept aside by the disease.
The UCI has said that next month’s postponed Giro d’Italia would be raced after the Tour de France, and the Vuelta a Espana after that, with dates to be announced next month.
With the Giro d’Italia and the Tokyo Games road race in late July on Mount Fuji both postponed, the Tour de France would be more competitive than ever as the whole spectrum of elite cyclists focus on the one event.
However, Prudhomme has also stressed health comes first as France battles the health crisis.
The country has been under lockdown since March 17 in an attempt to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The epic race is now to embark from Nice on the Mediterranean coast on Aug. 29 and culminate over three weeks later on Paris’s celebrated Champs Elysees on Sept. 20, where the traditional yellow jersey is awarded to the winner beneath the Arc de Triomphe.
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