Cycling: Tour de France not to be without spectators

ANKARA A top cycling contest of 2020, Tour de France will not be held behind closed doors, its organizer said. The French magazine Sports Auvergne reported late Wednesday that race director Christian Prudhomme said: "Tour de France won't be held behind closed doors." "To date, Tour de France is set to be held as scheduled (from June 27 to July 19). Naturally, it depends on the evolution of the pandemic," Prudhomme said. "In 'Tour de France', the most important [word] is 'France'," he said adding that it’s the health situation in the country that matters. "Tour de France is fervor, enthusiasm and above all smiles. We have to find those smiles," Prudhomme also said. Meanwhile, the French Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu said last week that organizing the 2020 Tour de France without spectators due to coronavirus pandemic was "imaginable", the Paris Match magazine reported, as France were looking for alternative plans to run this competition. As part of the global fight against COVID-19, world cycling's governing body (UCI) said on Wednesday on its website that the union and its stakeholders "decided to prolong the suspension of cycling competitions until 1 June 2020, and until further notice" Tour de France is in the 2020 UCI World Tour calendar. This year's Tour de France has been scheduled to kick off on June 27 in the French Mediterranean province of Nice. The 107th edition of the cycling race will end on July 19 in Paris' avenue of Champs-Elysees. Several sports events in France were suspended or put on hold due to COVID-19 including a major tennis tournament, French Open and French football divisions, Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. The 2020 French Open (Roland Garros), was postponed on March 17 due to coronavirus fears. "Roland Garros tournament will be played from September 20 to October 4, 2020," the French Open said on Twitter. The clay-court Grand Slam in Paris had been scheduled to be held on May 24-June 7. Top-tier Ligue 1 said on its website on March 13 that Ligue 1 Conforama and Domino's Ligue 2 (a lower division) championships were suspended until further notice. After first appearing in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December, the virus has spread to at least 180 countries and regions. The global death toll from the virus has hit over 49,200 with more than 965,000 confirmed cases, and above 203,000 recoveries, according to the data compiled by U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University. France on Wednesday reported 509 more deaths from the virus, taking the death toll to 4,032, the health minister said. A total of 56,989 are infected in the country, with 6,000 in intensive care, said Jerome Salomon.