Professional cycling reacted with a mix of cautious optimism and scepticism after the French sports minister, Roxana Mărăcineau, confirmed that together with the Tour de France organisers ASO, her officials were exploring ways of running a scaled down Tour with restrictions on spectator access this summer even though the country is currently in lockdown to limit the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
With the Olympic Games and Euro 2020 already cancelled, the Tour is one of very few major events remaining – for the time being – on this summer’s sporting calendar. Reports on Thursday suggested that a deadline of 1 May seems likely for a decision on the Tour, because it will be clear by then whether the outbreak has peaked in France, and because that would give a clear two months for cyclists to prepare for the race. A representative of ASO contacted by the Guardian said the company had no comment to make.
From Belgium, Patrick Lefevere, the head of the sport’s most successful team, Deceuninck-Quickstep, was dismissive, saying: “I’m an optimist, but I don’t see how they can justify running the Tour de France. What about the fans? Who can enter France and who can’t? Are we really going to stuff the hotels with people? I can’t imagine someone waving a magic wand in early July and the coronavirus crisis suddenly being resolved.”
“As long as public health can be guaranteed,” the head of the Sunweb team, Iwan Spekenbrink, told the Le Monde newspaper, “I can see this being the race that restarts the cycling season, even if it will have to be guaranteed that everyone has a minimum amount of time to train for it.”