Giro and Vuelta set to overlap
A revised cycling calendar from the International Cycling Union (UCI) on Tuesday revealed that the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana will overlap by six days, while there was also a new women’s version of the sport’s toughest one-day race.
The “Hell of the north” ParisRoubaix has been fixed for October 25, with the first women’s version of the gruelling, mud-splattered slog on cobbled mining roads.
The race is epic in its length, with swathes of riders not making it to the finish line, and it is a key date for sports fans in France.
Two other top one-day races, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Tour of Flanders, already had women’s dates and were rescheduled for men and women for October 4 and 18.
The world road race championships in Switzerland are due to start on September 20.
The UCI also announced new dates for the two other Grand Tours on Tuesday, with the Giro to start in Budapest on October 3 and finish in Rome on October 25 and the Vuelta to be run between October 20 and November 8.
The UCI World Tour restarts in Italy on August 1 with the Strade Bianche followed a week later by the longest race on the circuit, the Milan-San Remo.
The first major race in France will be a shortened five-day version of the Criterium de Dauphine starting on Wednesday, August 12.
There is no guarantee the Tour de France will go ahead in 2020 due to the Covid-19 crisis, French sports minister Roxana Mărăcineanu says.
The Tour has been rescheduled to August 29-September 20. With crowd-drawing events banned in France until the end of August, special arrangements might have to be made for the start of the Tour in Nice, the sports ministry said in April.
“Many people are begging me to keep the Tour, even behind closed doors,” Mărăcineanu told France Television.
“I hope it will take place but I am not sure. We do not know what the epidemic will be like after lockdown.”
France’s lockdown will be partially lifted on Monday, though the seasons of several sports, including football’s Ligue 1 and rugby’s Top 14, have already been abandoned.
Mărăcineanu added that the Tour and the rescheduled French Open tennis tournament, expected to start on September 20, could be held behind closed doors should the ban on popular events be extended.
“Just like the Tour de France, the French Open is the quintessence of professional sports with fans., The Roland Garros stadiums have many seats to fill, having it played behind closed doors would be the worst solution but we would do it if the survival of those sports was at stake,” she said.