Cycling news - Fabian Cancellara sceptical of Tour de France plans for August

The French government last week confirmed that sporting events will not resume anywhere in the country before September, but at the same time acknowledged that with the re-arranged Tour due to begin on 29 August, it was up to race organisers to decide on how best to proceed.

A leaked schedule from the UCI this week suggested a possible new calendar for the cycling season that involved three Grand Tours taking place within the space of just 71 days, with some overlap between the scheduling of the sports biggest races.

The ruling in France re-emphasised the impossibility of joined-up decision making between countries, with both Germany and Italy having already begun to outline plans for resuming action in the respective countries' domestic football leagues.

And four-time world champion Cancellera, who won gold in the time trial at Beijing 2008 and Rio 2016 and now lives in Switzerland, believes the lack of consistency between the path being pursued by Tour organisers and government advice is cause for concern.

"I just think on the calendar, is that possible?" he questioned. "Because yesterday in Switzerland we had updated guidelines and it has affected a lot of events. For events of over 1000 people everything is blocked until the end of August if I’m not wrong. These are the European rules, in Germany too etcetera.

"Of course we understand that a football stadium if it’s empty it costs them more money, but in cycling fans are just on the road. I mean I hope that we’re going to have bike races. Which bike race it is, honestly, I don’t care. For me it’s just important that there will be some bike races. If it’s a classic, if it’s a Grand Tour, if it’s only a two-week Tour de France, or two-week Giro, or two-week Vuelta… I don’t care."

Should the leaked UCI plan go ahead as seems probable, racing would start with Strade Bianche on August 1, with the Tour de France’s postponed start in Nice on August 29 remaining in place.

One striking quirk of the draft plan is in the overlapping of the Giro d’Italia, running from October 3 through to October 25, with both Monuments and the Vuelta a Espana, the latter of which would then coincide with the start of Paris-Roubaix.

Liege-Bastogne-Liege would take place on October 4, the Tour of Flanders on October 18, and the Vuelta a Espana, already reduced in length to 18 stages, would start on October 20, meaning there would be six days Grand Tour racing overlap in Spain and Italy.

"I think three weeks for all those three races will be too much," said Cancellera. "You have the one-day classic races, the five Monuments, you have the Worlds. I feel it’s a tight schedule, but with the regulations that there are still for certain countries, and the Colombians, the Americans, the Asians, wherever people are in the world.

"There’s still some time, but there will come a second wave [of coronavirus], this is what they talk about, and if the second wave will come there will be nothing. Then we will stay home again."

Meanwhile Mick Bennett, the Tour of Britain director, has admitted he would be "totally staggered” if the Tour de France is able to go ahead this summer.

Bennett is optimistic that, in spite of reservations about the Tour, the UK race will still be able to go ahead as planned between 6-13 September, owing to the logistics of organising a shorter, smaller race.

He said: “[I'd be] staggered, but in a positive way if it happens. It’s three weeks long and a global event, so much more so than the Tour of Britain, in terms of the logistics, number of people on the race and the travel involved with people coming from across the world and areas with different levels of restrictions."

Cancellara, who retired in 2016, last raced for Leopard Trek, while he won eight individual stages during his Tour career.

He retains the unwelcome distinction of having led the Tour for longer than any other rider - 29 days - without ever winning it, despite taking victory in the opening stage five in five separate years.

The 39-year-old believes that, with riders who reside in different countries having been subject to different rules and regulations during the coronavirus lockdown - with various governments having implemented a range of rules limiting who may exercise outdoors over the last two months - riders may need time to come up to fitness if the Tour de France does indeed go ahead as planned in August.

"We have seen in the last few years that a lot of bike racers or a lot of bike riders, professional riders, have come to certain races where they have not raced a lot and still be super fit," he said. "So it means the training, if it comes to the training schedules and so on, with altitude training, with specific training, a lot of athletes have become really fit.

"That’s why I think there will be, I think, some races before the Tour, but no big stage races. In the end it will be for most of everyone the same, it’s going to be for sure on the mental side how much they have suffered or not, because of course if you have no races and no planning I mean you are just home and you ride your bike, with empty legs and an empty brain having no goals. That’s quite difficult.

"A guy like Van Avermaet, I don’t say he’s old but he’s in a certain age and he’s just at home, and of course you have your family that gives you the support, but riders want to race and not sit at home doing nothing."