Tour de France postponed: organisers confirm 29 August start

The 2020 Tour de France won’t take place in June and July as originally planned and it has been confirmed that cycling’s premier event will now start in August.

When president Emmanuel Macron extended France’s coronavirus lockdown to 11 May he effectively ended the faint hopes that the Tour could still go ahead between 27 June and 19 July.

The Tour’s organisers announced that the 2020 event would now start on Saturday 29 August and finish on Sunday 20 September. This year’s planned route, from Nice to Paris, will remain the same.

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The statement said: “Following the president’s address on Monday evening, where large-scale events were banned in France until mid-July as a part of the fight against the spread of Covid-19, the organisers of the Tour de France, in agreement with the Union Cycliste Internationale [UCI], have decided to postpone the Tour de France to Saturday 29 August to Sunday 20 September 2020.

“Over the last few weeks, there has been constant communication between riders, teams, the organisers as well as other relevant third parties all with the support of the UCI, who are responsible for arranging a new global cycling schedule, in which the Tour de France takes pride of place.

“The organisers of the Tour de France are in regular contact with and have reached agreement with all of the different parties involved, from the local communities to the public authorities.

“We would like to thank all of cycling’s stakeholders, the Tour de France’s partners, its broadcasters as well as all of the local authorities for their reactivity and their support.

“We all hope that the 2020 Tour de France will help to turn the page on the difficult period that we are currently experiencing.”

The women’s event, La Course by le Tour de France avec FDJ, will also be postponed to a later date. But it will take place during the 2020 Tour.

The 30th edition of the Etape du Tour cyclosportive, originally scheduled to take place on 5 July, will be postponed to a date yet to be determined.

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