French President Macron cancels all public events through mid-July, postponement of Tour de France likely
No official postponement or cancellation from ASO yet
On Easter Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron extended France’s COVID-19 pandemic lockdown until May 11 and cancelled all public events through mid-July, likely postponing the Tour de France, which was supposed to begin June 27 in Nice.
Macron told the French public in a televised address that schools and shops will start to gradually reopen after May 11 if citizens were “civic, responsible and respected the rules” and the number of cases of coronavirus continued to drop, but cafés, restaurants, cinemas, hotels and public events would not return until mid-July. France has 98,076 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 14,967 deaths, the fourth highest number of fatalities from the virus in the world.
So far ASO has not officially postponed or cancelled the Tour. According to Reuters, the race dates might be changed from July 25-August 16.
Another Spanish sports news outlet reports different alternate dates for the Tour and for the Vuelta a España and Giro d’Italia, with consecutive Grand Tours in August, September and October.
Marca reporting that ASO and RCS have come to an agreement on dates. Tour de France will be held from August 2 to 25, Vuelta in September and the Giro in October. All races will remain 3 weeks.
Of course this all depends on how the Coronavirus crisis develops.
— Race Radio (@TheRaceRadio) April 13, 2020
So far 19 WorldTour races have been cancelled due to the pandemic. There hasn’t been a WorldTour race since March 14, when the penultimate stage of Paris-Nice was designated its last.
