Tour rescheduling talk, UCI calls a meeting: Daily News Digest
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Hello again, CyclingTips readers.
Could the Tour de France actually be held this year only about one month after it was initially scheduled? The ASO seems to think so. The race organizer has reportedly been looking into the possibility of a Tour running from late July to mid-August.
There seems to be support for the idea among the local governments of the start and finish towns that host the race, but it remains to be seen whether the French government would sign off on a large sporting event moving forward as early as July.
In short, the uncertainty continues—and as it does, we’re also aware that loading up the Daily News Digest with every detail of behind-the-scenes rescheduling talks just for the sake of having headlines might not be the best approach.
With racing news much quieter than normal right now, you may notice moving forward that the DND might spend more time focusing on some other areas of news from the cycling world, while also highlighting more of the awesome content that CyclingTips is putting out right now. Fortunately, there’s quite a lot of it to keep us busy.
Until next time, readers.
What’s news
| Tour organizers mull one-month delay
Tour de France organizers are looking into possibly holding the Tour de France from late July to mid-August, roughly one month after it was initially planned to run.
According to French newspaper Le Parisien and Spanish agency EFE, the ASO has been in contact with some of the localities hosting stage starts and finishes to gauge support for the new dates. Originally planned to run from June 27 to July 19, the proposed rescheduled Tour would instead run from July 25 to August 16—assuming the French government approves, which for now remains a big question mark.
| UCI holds emergency meeting
AS reports that the UCI called an emergency meeting on Tuesday to address the implications of the coronavirus crisis on teams and riders.
Several squads have laid off staff and reduced salaries amid widespread race cancellations. According to AS, the UCI, the riders’ union, and the AIGCP – which represents teams – are discussing the issue.
| Deceuninck CEO discussing sponsorship financials with Lefevere
Het Nieuwsblad reports that Francis Van Eeckhout, CEO of Deceuninck, is negotiating with Deceuninck-Quick-Step CEO Patrick Lefevere about the financial status of the partnership as the team is not currently providing publicity at races for its sponsor.
For now it is not clear how team and sponsor plan to proceed but Van Eeckhout says he is not planning to cut off support entirely. “We know how many staff the team employs,” he said, according to Het Nieuwsblad. “It is certainly not the intention to pull the plug.”
| Dumoulin fit again
After seeing his 2019 campaign derailed by injury and spending early 2020 sidelined by illness, Tom Dumoulin says he’s finally feeling healthy—not that he will be racing any time soon anyway.
“I am fit again, but at the moment I can’t do much with it,” Dumoulin told NOS. “That is incredibly sour.”
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SUBSCRIBE TO THE DAILY NEWS DIGEST PODCASTToday’s featured image of EF in TTT mode at the 2019 Tour de France comes from the Grubers.
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