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TOUR DE FRANCE

Danish Tour de France stages postponed until 2022

Denmark was originally scheduled to host the three opening stages of the Tour de France next year. The stages will now not take place until 2022.

Published: 3 August 2020 14:34 CEST
Danish Tour de France stages postponed until 2022
File photo: Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters/Ritzau Scanpix

The Danish-hosted stages had been subject to some uncertainty following the disruption to worldwide sport caused by the global Covid-19 pandemic. A delay has preserved the event , although it leaves cycling fans in Denmark with a two-year wait to see the tour on their home turf.

The three Danish Tour de France stages are now scheduled for July 1st, 2nd and 3rd 2022, Copenhagen’s lord mayor Frank Jensen told DR.

“I am happy that the holding company has now reached an agreement and we are saying ‘yes please’ to moving the tour to 2022,” said Jensen, who is also chairman of the board on the company set up to operate the Danish bid for the tour.

Costs for the rearrangement will amount to 5.8 million kroner, to be shared between tour organiser ASO, the Tour de France itself and Danish interests, DR reports.

 

Municipalities in cities hosting the start and finishing lines of the Danish stages will be responsible for covering associated extra costs.

Organisers reached the decision to move the tour back a second time, preferring the choice to two other options: moving it back a week in 2021 or cancelling the Danish event altogether.

An overlap with Copenhagen’s status as a venue city for the 2021 UEFA European Championships in football – also put back a year because of coronavirus – was the primary obstacle with regard to hosting in 2021.

READ ALSO: Here are the routes for the Danish stages of the 2021 Tour de France

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SPORT

Inaugural Women’s Tour de France to start at Eiffel Tower

The route for the inaugural women's Tour de France was unveiled on Thursday with eight stages, embarking from the Eiffel Tower on July 24th next year.

Published: 14 October 2021 16:04 CEST
French cyclist Marion Rousse delivers a speech next to Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme during the presentation of the first edition of the Women's Tour de France cycling race.
French cyclist Marion Rousse delivers a speech next to Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme during the presentation of the first edition of the Women's Tour de France cycling race. Photo: Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP.

The first complete edition of the women’s version of cycling’s iconic race starts on the day the 109th edition of the men’s Tour ends.

After a route that winds through northern France, the race culminates in the Planche des Belles Filles climb in the Vosges mountains.

Danish cyclist Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig said she was over the moon to be taking part.

“I want it to be July now so we can get stared,” she said actually jumping up and down.

“The Tour de France is a reference and when you say you are a cyclist people ask about that. Now I can say I race the Tour de France,” she said after the presentation.

MAP: Details of 2022 Tour de France (and Denmark) revealed

Race director Marion Rousse, a former French cycling champion and now a TV commentator, told AFP it would be a varied course that would maintain suspense over the eight days.

“It is coherent in a sporting sense, and we wanted to start from Paris,” she said of the 1,029km run.

“With only eight stages we couldn’t go down to the Alps or the Pyrenees, the transfers would be too long.

“The stages obviously are shorter for the women than for the men’s races. The men can go 225 kilometres. For the women the longest race on our roster is 175km and we even needed special dispensation for that,” she said. “But it’s a course I love.”

Christian Prudhomme, the president of the Tour de France organisers, was equally enthusiastic.

“The fact it sets off from Paris the day the men’s race ends gives the new race a boost because it sets the media up to follow it more easily.

“It also means that with the Tour de France starting on July 1st and the women’s race ending on the 31st, there will be cycling on television every day of July.”

The men’s race is broadcast in around 190 countries.

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