UCI president David Lappartient on coronavirus cancellations: 'I hope the Tour de France is the start of a new life'

UCI President David Lappartient says he shall wait until March before any races are rescheduled, as the list of events postponed grows weekly.

Several races have been forced to cancel or postpone their events due to the Covid-19 pandemic, however a number of organisers have requested their races be rescheduled in May, a month that is already pretty packed with races including the Giro d'Italia and Critérium du Dauphiné.

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This leaves the UCI with some tricky decisions to make as they have to reorganise the race calendar once again, after having to do the same in 2020.

Among the races cancelled or postponed already this season are the Tour Down Under, the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and the Volta ao Algarve.

Speaking in an interview with DirectVelo, the UCI President said: "We have taken the position that everything that can be ridden will be ridden, the road season has to start.

“Apart from the United Arab Emirates, travel movements outside Europe will be limited. Most races will be held in Europe. Some countries are almost completely in lockdown, other countries have strict rules. In Belgium we can race behind closed doors.

"I was at the Tour of Flanders [in 2020] and that worked very well. So actually the Belgian races are not up for discussion."

Lappartient said that a possible race block system will be made where multiple races take place in one country, much like what was done in Italy last year with Il Lombardia brought forward with Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo and the other remaining Italian races at the start of the 2020 season restart.

But the main issue is that most races want to be put in the calendar before the Tour de France and, of course, the Olympic Games in Tokyo, which at the moment are still going ahead.

But despite all this, Lappartient is optimistic: "I hope that the Tour de France will be the start of a new life. The first half of the year will be difficult. Most countries are engaged in a difficult vaccination campaign and it will also be necessary to closely monitor the evolution of variants."