Tour de France eyes Aug. 29 start; US baseball, soccer remain in limbo

Sports Desk, Apr 14 (efe-epa).- Organizers of the Tour de France have rescheduled the 2020 edition of the world’s premier cycling event for Aug. 29-Sept. 20, sources with knowledge of the matter told Efe Tuesday.

In the United States, meanwhile, Major League Soccer gave up on the notion of resuming games next month and Major League Baseball said that it was too soon to make plans amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

A Tour de France taking place in the proposed time-frame would force a postponement of the final grand tour of the cycling season, the Vuelta a España, scheduled for Aug. 14-Sept. 6.

Efe was able to confirm that Tour director Christian Prudhomme has been in touch with mayors of the cities along the route of the 2020 race to inform them of the new dates.

Until Tuesday, the Tour was still theoretically scheduled to start on June 27 in Nice and conclude in Paris on July 19, but everything changed with French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement this week that the nationwide ban on public events will remain in place until mid-July.

The coronavirus has already forced the cancelation of the Giro d’Italia – the first grand tour of the season – and several other events. The sport’s international governing body, the UCI, plans to meet Wednesday to discuss a revised competition calendar.

Coronavirus has claimed nearly 16,000 lives in France.

Across the Atlantic, the commissioner of Major League Baseball said Tuesday that his organization remains engaged in “largely a waiting game.”

“The only decision we have made, the only real plan that we have, is that baseball is not going to return until the public health situation is improved to the point that we’re comfortable that we can play games in a manner that is safe for our players, our employees, our fans and in a way that will not impact the public health situation adversely,” Rob Manfred said in an interview with Fox Business television.

US media outlets have reported that MLB was contemplating having all 30 teams gather in Arizona and begin playing at 11 ballparks in greater Phoenix.

“We have a variety of contingency plans that we have talked about and worked on,” Manfred told Fox Business. “Plans may be too strong a word. Ideas may be a better word. All of them are designed to address limitations that may exist when businesses restart – travel limitations, limitations on mass gatherings that may still exist.”

Baseball was about mid-way through spring training when the decision was made to postpone Opening Day, which had been set for March 26.

The MLB acted after the NBA and NHL suspended their respective seasons.

“What ideas come to fruition will depend on what the restrictions are, what the public health situation is. But we are intent on the idea of trying to make baseball part of the recovery – the economic recovery – and sort of a milestone on the return of normalcy,” Manfred said.

“The only decision we have made, the only real plan that we have, is that baseball is not going to return until the public health situation is improved to the point that we’re comfortable that we can play games in a manner that is safe,” he said.

Major League Soccer, which suspended matches on March 12, acknowledged Tuesday that it aspirations to resume play May 10 were all but dead.

“Although we had hoped to return to play in mid-May, that is extremely unlikely based on the guidance of federal and local public health authorities,” MLS said in a statement. “Our goal remains to play as many games as possible, and while we currently have enough dates to play the entire season, we recognize at this time that it may become difficult to do so.”

The league is weighing a wide range of possibilities, MLS commissioner Don Garber told ESPN this week, such as tournament formats, neutral-site games, an abridged regular season and matches played in empty stadiums.

“We continue to learn more every day from the medical experts, and we expect to have additional details in the coming weeks regarding when we can return to play,” MLS said.

The US death toll from coronavirus stands at more than 24,400.