This article is from the AIPS bulletin:
“Jean -Paul Savart – AIPS Executive Committee member
PARIS, March 26, 2020 – Will the 2020 Tour de France in cycling take place this summer? This is the question that has been raised by the world of sport since the Tokyo Olympics was postponed. The postponement of the Olympics, alongside many other major global events of the year like the European Football Championship, the Copa America and the African Nations Championship, has brought relief to most competitors. However, cyclists are still uncertain about their biggest event of the year.
Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), the organizer of the Tour de France, is silent. Officially the famed race is still scheduled to begin on June 27, 2020 in Nice. While the start of the Dauphiné criterium is still planned for May 31, 2020, but ASO has refused to respond to questions from journalists. However, to everyone’s surprise, the French sports minister, Roxana Maracineanu, has just spoken. She took a favorable view of maintaining the Tour de France in 2020, but perhaps at a later date and above all behind closed doors.
According to the minister, the presence of the public at the start and finish points should be banned as well as all roadside gatherings. She also declared that the financing of the Tour is not based on ticketing but on media broadcasting rights. “In this period of confinement, everyone is aware and responsible. Everybody has understood the benefits of staying at home and therefore preferring the television show rather than the live show,” Roxana Maracineanu says. Furthermore, she believes that the competition could well be postponed to August or even September since the world calendar is now free of any other competition.
We are now waiting for the reaction of the Tour organizers, who have already considered several options, including the removal of the publicity fleet, but not, in any circumstances, a behind closed-door event.
As for riders, team managers and sponsors who have been interviewed, they all would like the Tour de France to go ahead but would accept its cancellation if the coronavirus crisis were to continue. The riders even accept the idea of starting the event with short and unequal training. In France, the professionals are now only riding on home trainers with the hope of being able to get back on the road before the end of May. Interviewed by the newspaper “L’Equipe”, French champion Thibault Pinot believes that foreign riders not affected by the confinement are right to continue training outdoors. But he regrets to see them post their progress on social networks.
From France, in cycling as in all other sports, the time has come for solidarity and the fight against the coronavirus. For the Tour de France, we can always wait….”
