Tour de France set to be postponed

PARIS (Agencies): The Tour de France looks set to be postponed following the French government’s extension of a ban on mass gatherings because of the coronavirus pandemic.

President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that restrictions on public events would continue until mid-July. Cycling’s biggest race, won by Team Ineos’ Egan Bernal last year, is due to run from 27 June to 19 July. Race organisers ASO have been contacted for comment. The Tour, due to start in Nice, is being contested by Bernal’s Ineos team-mate and four-time winner Chris Froome after the Briton broke his neck, femur, elbow, hip and ribs in a crash preparing for last year’s event.

Colombian Bernal won last year’s race following a battle with Britain’s Geraint Thomas, who won the 2018 edition. On 10 April, cycling’s governing body furloughed staff and cut leaders’ salaries as a result of the global pandemic.

The International Cycling Union blamed the postponement of the Olympics and Paralympics, plus losing much of its annual calendar, for the move. The Giro d’Italia has already been called off, along with the ‘monument’ one-day races: Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.

As it stands, the Road World Championships remain scheduled to take place at the end of September in Switzerland.