a new calendar full of races and uncertainties

Cyclists finally know why they sweat on their home trainers: Tuesday, May 5, the International Cycling Union (UCI) unveiled what could be the calendar of the 2020 season, three weeks after the announcement of the postponement, to August 29 , from the start of the Tour de France. In this scheme, the season would start in Tuscany, the 1^er August, with the Strade Bianche, and would end in Madrid, on November 8, with the finish of the Tour of Spain.

• A hypothetical calendar

“Hopefully, at the end of the day, this calendar is not a sandcastle and the situation is stabilized enough for us to run …” Like Iwan Spekenbrink, boss of the Sunweb team and representative of cycling teams in the discussions, the peloton is aware that this calendar can only be translated on the roads if there is a marked improvement in the health situation in Europe.

Beyond the probability of a second wave of the Covid-19 epidemic after the summer, the organization of races before the discovery of a vaccine will be a challenge, because of public rallies at the roadside and the impossibility of controlling the development of a home within the teams.

“We had to plan, not wait for things to settle themselves, said Marc Madiot, manager of the Groupama-FDJ team and president of the National Cycling League. We will have to be ingenious, organized and scrupulous, but we can do it. Anyway, you shouldn’t be moping. There was an abatement at the beginning but now we have prospects. “

Asked about the chances that the Tour de France would really take place, David Lappartient, President of the UCI, said to himself “Confident but careful. I think the situation will be better but there is a risk that this will not be the case and that we will be confined again. For cycling, the absence of the Tour de France would be a disaster. ” He agreed that postponing the Tour again, in October, would be very difficult to achieve.

Some are more skeptical. Tour of Britain director Mick Bennett would “Absolutely amazed that the Tour de France can take place. Amazed, but positively, he said to the British channel ITV, given the logistics, the number of people on the race and the international travel that it entails, with people from different parts of the world with different levels of restrictions. ”

In a discussion on Instagram, Christopher Froome, quadruple winner of the event, questioned the capacity of the organizers “To prevent people from gathering en masse” by the roads.

“In September, there will necessarily be fewer people than in July or August, said Christian Prudhomme, director of the Tour de France, in an interview with AFP, at Figaro and to The team. The foreign audiences will be much, much, much less important and we will adapt with the state services, the police, the gendarmerie, the communities… It’s almost four months away, let’s leave time to time. “

• Three months of preparation, three months of competition

This compressed calendar upsets the benchmarks of teams accustomed to reasoning by blocks of competitions, with the racing season for a day and then big laps. Combining the Tour de France and the Tour of Italy will be impossible, and a very difficult Tour-Vuelta double, says Jean-Baptiste Quiclet, performance director of the AG2R-La Mondiale team.

“This is a season close to what is done in biathlon, with a series of objectives each weekend. You have to surf on the form rather than aiming for a specific race, says Romain Bardet’s coach. The Tour de France will serve, for some, as preparation for the classic Flanders. We are going to have to prepare three different groups of eight runners, each intended to run a big lap. This will give young people their chances. And the leaders of the Tour will find a World – Liège-Bastogne-Liège sequence at the exit with very short recovery times. “

What generate surprises? At the World Championships – on the mountain circuit of Martigny, in Switzerland -, no doubt, believes Jean-Baptiste Quiclet. On the Tour too: “The absence of successive blocks of competition before the Tour can weigh on the qualities of endurance and resistance in the third week. There will be more risks and more likely to be a bad day for leaders. “

French rugby has become a specialty of “duplicates”, these weekends where the Top 14 continues without the internationals, mobilized by the French team. Cycling will experience the situation very often in the fall with 26 days of racing combining two events, and six days with three races. October will be the busiest month, due to the impossibility of organizing races in the Benelux – where most of the classics take place – in August.

This orgy of racing should culminate on Sunday, October 25, the day of the arrival of the Tour of Italy, Paris-Roubaix male and female and of arrival at the Tourmalet on the Tour of Spain. According to the UCI, the Giro-Vuelta five-day overlay was compulsory, given the weather uncertainty in the Pyrenees in November.

The risk is that these races will cannibalize. The organizers of lower events will have to adapt and, no doubt, shift theirs. But this competition is imperative for the teams, who want to be able to work their 30 or so riders.

It’s the Tour of Italy that is most affected by these duplicates, since each weekend will have a great classic. According to David Lappartient, maintaining the Giro for three weeks – a red line for the organizer – “Went hand in hand with having some competition on Sunday”. In a press release, the Italian organizer RCS deplored that its “Alternative proposals” have been rejected.

It seems that this debate has been the most tense between the stakeholders. For the rest, the discussions on this crisis calendar have rather brought together a family of cycling who is otherwise very divided, considers David Lappartient. Overall, the big French, Italian and Belgian organizers were pampered, while the Swiss and Spanish races canceled in the first half were not rescheduled.

• What sanitary conditions?

The UCI has not announced any measures that will be put in place around races and teams to prevent the spread of the virus. The medical director of the federation, Professor Xavier Bigard, will lead a working group bringing together organizers and team doctors to define this health protocol.

“We have time before us and the situation will not necessarily be the same, said Marc Madiot. In the apprehension of the virus, we are more aware that three months ago and less than in three months. If runners are told to put a mask between the bus exit and the start line, they will do so. As well as they can refuse photos and autographs. If PCR tests are also required before the start of the Tour and on rest days, we will do so, although it would be useless to have a Covid-19 test every other day. “

Final uncertainty: will this 2020 season be with all the teams? The Polish team CCC, whose sponsor announced at the start of the crisis, is under serious threat that it will face difficulties in ensuring the survival of the team of Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet.

“We know that we have three, four, five teams who are more in difficulty than the others. This is where our attention goes “, explained David Lappartient. No team has yet signaled their intention not to finish the season, he said. If a team at the start of the Tour de France is renounced, it will not be replaced, said Christian Prudhomme.

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