Tour de France organizers want 2021 Grand Depart in Copenhagen to move dates to accommodate Olympic Games

Tour de France organizer ASO has asked the Copenhagen Grand Depart committee to shift the dates of the start of the 2021 edition so as not to clash with the Tokyo Olympic Games, which was postponed a year from this summer because of the coronavirus epidemic. This season the revamped Tour de France schedule (August 29-September 20) sees the final day into Paris overlapping with the 2020 UCI Road World Championships in Aigle-Martigny, Switzerland.

Copenhagen Mayor Frank Jensen, the chairman of the local organizing group’s board, told Danish broadcaster DR, “I can confirm that we have received a request from the Tour de France management that they would like to discuss the contracted dates they have with us for when the Tour should start Denmark in 2021.”

Currently, the 2021 Tour begins in Copenhagen on July 2, the first of three stages in Denmark. The postponed Olympic Games is on the calendar from July 23 to August 8, with the men’s road race on July 24. Complicating things even further is the also-postponed-a-year Euro 2021 soccer tournament, spread across Europe from June 11 to July 11. Copenhagen hosts three group stage matches on June 12, 17 and 21 before a 1/8 final game on June 28.

If the Danish stages of the 2021 Tour were to shift one week earlier, new dates June 25, 26 and 27 would fall just ahead of the Euro playoff game.

Jensen admits the effort to move the Grand Depart will be a difficult one.