By AFPMore by this AuthorPARISTour de France organisers are working feverishly in the shadows to find a new start date for cycling's biggest stage race after public gatherings were banned until mid-July in the latest extension of the French coronavirus lockdown. ASO's reorganisation task is massive for an event with 21 start towns, 21 finish lines and over 3000km (around 2,000 miles) of route and 500,000 roadside fans per day. "The Tour de France is 3000km of smiles," ASO chief Christian Prudhomme has said in reference to the holiday roadside gatherings. "We won't run a Tour de France without the fans." A late July start for the Tour could be considered too close to that ban on public gatherings while also running up against another problem.

Source: Daily Nation April 14, 2020 14:26 UTC