Tour de France 2020 postponed due to Covid-19
The start of the 2020 Tour de France has been postponed to August 29 due to the coronavirus epidemic, although the route appears to be unchanged.
The 2020 event will now end on Sunday September 20, on the Champs-Élysées in Paris (the usual finishing line). It will start in Nice (Alpes-Maritimes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) - as planned - on August 29.
The event had been due to start on June 27.
It had previously been suggested that the Tour might go ahead as planned, without spectators - despite the epidemic - but some commentators had said it may have needed to be cancelled altogether.
In late March, sports minister Roxana Maracineanu told news source France Inter that “all scenarios were being studied”, including holding the event without spectators, postponing it, or cancelling it completely.
Read more: Tour de France 2020: What impact Covid-19
But the postponement was officially confirmed after President Macron made his fourth address on the subject of Covid-19 on Monday night (April 13). Alongside a series of other measures, he announced that “all events including many members of the public” would be forbidden “until mid-July”.
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Organisers of the Tour then consulted with all interested parties before making the final decision to postpone the race - including the teams, and the local elected officials and authorities of the towns and villages along the route.
As shown on the Tour’s official website, the route so far appears to be unchanged despite the postponement.
(Map: LeTour.fr)
