The Tour de France moved to August 29 to September 20

Two days after French President Emmanuel Macron extended France’s COVID-19 pandemic lockdown until May 11 and cancelled all public events through mid-July, the Tour de France announced that it would move the 2020 edition to August 29 to September 20 from the original dates of June 27 to July 19.

Le Tour de France will take place on the planned route, with no changes, from Nice to Paris, from Saturday 29th August to Sunday 20th September.
For more information ➡️ https://t.co/Ik9vmcp7sN#TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/0HSJLLYnXs

— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) April 15, 2020

The route, beginning in Nice and finishing in Paris, remains unchanged.

The UCI immediately fixed the original dates of the World Road Cycling Championships in Aigle-Martigny, Switzerland from September 20 to 27. The UCI also announced that “The Giro d’Italia will take place after the UCI Worlds and will be followed by the Vuelta Ciclista a España. The National Championships, organised by the National Federations, will take place on the weekend of 22-23 August. The most prestigious one-day road races (the Monuments), ie: Milano-Sanremo, the Tour des Flandres, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia, will all take place this season, at dates still to be defined.”

The UCI wants to reschedule as many events on the international calendar as possible, including races in the WorldTour and Women’s WorldTour.

The Tour of Poland Twitter speculated on its spot in the revised calendar.

❗️ Tour de Pologne 2020 is expected to take place in August, before Tour de France. Still waiting for the exact dates from the @UCI_cycling ?? pic.twitter.com/Uk96y5EHoc

— Tour de Pologne (@Tour_de_Pologne) April 15, 2020

Several pros reacted to the announcements on Twitter.

The news many of us have been waiting for. Some light at the end of the tunnel.@LeTour expected to start on the 29th of August – assuming all goes well ?? https://t.co/ny4lMAnlcW

— Chris Froome (@chrisfroome) April 15, 2020

? “For riders, it’s really important to have certain dates in our heads”@GregVanAvermaet shares his thoughts on the revised 2020 racing calendar ??#RideForMore pic.twitter.com/w0Ck8lfz8v

— CCC Team (@CCCProTeam) April 15, 2020

There should be, of course, recognition that all these dates aren’t fixed, but merely changed, and the go-ahead for the cycling contests depends on the status of the pandemic.

Whether the Tour de France goes ahead on the revised dates or not will come down to whether it’s deemed safe by the authorities. It won’t be up to ASO, journalists or people on Twitter.

You can hardly blame ASO, or their employees, for wanting the race to go on.

— Richard Moore (@richardmoore73) April 15, 2020