MOSCOW, April 14. /TASS/. /TASS/. World’s prestigious multiple stage bicycle race, 2020 Tour de France, may be postponed indefinitely over the ongoing global spread of the novel coronavirus, French daily L’Equipe reported on Tuesday.
This year’s race, which consists of 21 day-long stages over the course of 23 days, has been initially scheduled to run between June 27 and July 19.
According to the daily, the postponement of the 3,470-kilometer cycling tournament may be enforced due to the decision of French authorities to temporarily ban all mass events on the territory of the country over the COVID-19 pandemic.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced earlier in the month that the previously announced regime of self-isolation in France had been extended until May 11, while all initially scheduled mass events had been cancelled until mid-July.
Tour de France Director General Christian Prudhomme repeatedly stated earlier in the year that he was not considering an issue of completely cancelling the race or holding it without spectators.
Another cycling multiple-stage Grand Tour, the 2020 Giro d’Italia, which was scheduled for May 9-31, was postponed indefinitely on March 13.
As of today, France has reported over 136,770 confirmed novel coronavirus cases with the death toll from the virus standing at 14,967, while over 27,700 patients have been reported to recover from COVID-19.
In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 1,900,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 120,560 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 459,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.
To date, a total of 21,102 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 1,694 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 170 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.