Tour de Suisse cancelled for first time since WWII; Vuelta to stick to start date

The Tour de Suisse was cancelled on Friday in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and the organisers of June’s eight-day cycling race said they will not reschedule it for later in the year.

“This is the first time since the Second World War that the traditional event will not take place,” said the statement on the race website, noting that Swiss authorities had not yet banned the event.

The tour, scheduled for June 7-14, had been the earliest top-level race still standing on the cycling calendar.

The organisers listed a series of potential problems if it went ahead.

These included the “support from the army and police for the safe execution of the event,” travel restrictions for teams from other countries and the risk of “additional strain on the Swiss health system due to possible crashes”.

They said the lack of preparation of riders based in countries where outdoor cycling is prohibited meant “a fair competition cannot be guaranteed”.

The statement also said the cancellation was a financial necessity because the pandemic has brought a collapse in sponsorship and in sales of hospitality packages. Further delays “would result in increased costs” for the organisers, sponsors and host cities.

“The top priority of the Tour de Suisse organisation is to ensure the continuity of this event,” said the statement.

The statement said that the organisers were staging a “digital” tour on the same dates and that 17 professional teams had signed up.

Cycling is in shutdown until the end of May, with the Tour de France still due to start on June 27.

Meanwhile, this year’s Vuelta a Espana is still set to go ahead as planned with all 21 stages despite the coronavirus pandemic’s devastating impact on Spain, the race’s director said on Thursday.

“As it stands today the Vuelta’s dates stay as they are and we not considering a race of less than the scheduled 21 stages,” Javier Guillen told sports daily AS.

It had been rumoured that the Vuelta, one of cycling’s three Grand Tours and is scheduled to start on Aug. 14 in the Netherlands, could reduce the number of stages if the Tour de France is delayed, in order to make room for the postponed Giro d’Italia which as yet has no new start date.

“All this is mere speculation that has come out of Italy ... we know that it’s difficult to combine races with established dates with others that need to be reorganised, so should know that we will have to be flexible should a change of dates materialise,” Guillen added.

However Guillen insisted that the priority was ensuring that the Tour de France, which is still scheduled to start on June 27, is run as “it’s an indispensible event for our sport”.

The COVID-19 death toll in Spain topped 10,000 on Thursday, making it the second worst-hit nation behind Italy.

The Tour of Flanders, scheduled for Sunday but cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, will be replaced by a short virtual race, Belgian television Sporza announced on Thursday.

The Flemish public television channel and the organisers of the classic, one of cycling’s five one-day ‘monuments’, has recruited 13 riders to race on rollers by riders from the confinement of their own homes.

The field is led by defending champion Alberto Bettiol, an Italian and several prominent Belgians including Remco Evenepoel, Greg Van Avermaet and Wout Van Aert. The “Ronde 2020” will be broadcast on TV from 3.30 pm and will last an hour.

The riders will cover the last 32 kilometres, over the race’s final two climbs, Oude-Kwaremont and Paterberg.

The commentary will be provided by the usual Sporza team.

Agencies