Tour de France boss Christian Prudhomme is happy that a new date has been found for the Tour de France. The Frenchman fears that teams will fall if the biggest cycling race cannot be driven this year due to the corona crisis.
“Everyone in the cycling world supported the idea, even those who don’t usually like us. Some teams said they should stop without the Tour in 2020. The Tour is therefore the basis of the revised calendar,” Prudhomme told the French news agency on Wednesday. AFP.
The Tour is scheduled to run from June 27 through July 19, but has been postponed to August 29 through September 20 due to the coronavirus outbreak. Of course it remains uncertain whether the match can continue on that date. France will be in lockdown for at least another month.
“We chose for August 29 to minimize the pandemic. We also thought it would be better to give the riders time to get in top shape. Although the schools will now be open during the Tour, it will not prevent huge success, “said Prudhomme.
‘We are not getting to the core of the course’
Prudhomme wants to change the course of the Tour, which never started later than July 13, as little as possible. “It is not excluded that we will change here and there, but we will not get to the core of the course. It will certainly not be a second-class Tour, on the contrary.”
“The most important thing now is that there are new dates for the riders to work towards. The drivers needed a goal in mind. I hope that all the teams that have been invited will also participate and that they all start healthy in Nice.”
The Critérium du Dauphiné is also planned to be organized in the run-up to the Tour, but the preparation course for the Tour is likely to be shortened in that case. After the Tour, the World Cup, Vuelta a España and Giro d’Italia are also on the program.
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