Tour de France organizers announced Wednesday that the three-week cycling race would be pushed back roughly two months, from June 27-July 19 to Aug. 29-Sept. 20.
The postponement was inevitable after French President Emmanuel Macron announced the cancellation of all public events through mid-July due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cycling’s calendar will need much more juggling to accommodate the other two grand tours and the world championships. The new Tour dates conflict with the Vuelta a España, scheduled for Aug. 14-Sept. 6. The Amaury Sports Organisation, which runs the Tour and the Vuelta, has made no announcement regarding the Vuelta’s schedule. ,
The Tour’s new dates also run into the world championships, set for Sept. 20-27 in Switzerland.
The Giro d’Italia will not start as scheduled May 9. No new date has been announced.
One complicating factor for the Vuelta and the Giro is that each race’s route goes through multiple countries that may impose or lift restrictions at different times. The Giro’s planned route begins in Hungary, and the postponement followed on the heels of the Hungarian government declaring a state of emergency. The Vuelta is set to begin in the Netherlands.
Cycling teams typically name different rosters for each of the three three-week stage races, and they’re used to a quick turnaround between the Vuelta and the world championships. But finding dates for all three races and the world championship before snow makes the Alps and Pyrenees impassible will be a challenge.
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