Published May 19, 2020 06:16PM
The UCI unveiled its full revised road calendar for 2020 on Tuesday, two weeks after presenting the newly reshuffled WorldTour schedule, announcing the dates for a total of 91 events across men’s and women’s elite, under-23, and junior races.
While WorldTour racing is planned to start back up again with Strade Bianche on August 1, UCI-sanctioned racing in general is set to resume in Europe as soon as July 2 with Romania’s Sibiu Cycling Tour, a 2.1-rated event. The ASWD Twilight Criterium in Boise, Idaho, is scheduled to open racing in the Western Hemisphere on July 11.
“We have just taken a new and important step towards a return to cycling competitions,” UCI president David Lappartient said in the UCI’s announcement of the news.
“After the calendars for the UCI WorldTour and UCI Women’s WorldTour, and that for mountain bike, the athletes, teams and all stakeholders now have the entire 2020 UCI International Road Calendar. I thank our partners and in particular our National Federations, for enabling us to establish these new dates as quickly as possible. However, we know that these dates, as important as they are, remain subject to modification depending on the development of the pandemic in the coming weeks and months.”
According to the UCI’s statement, some 1,000 events across the various disciplines the organization oversees have been postponed or cancelled since March, with some 40 percent of the requests for postponement or cancellation coming from the road cycling world.
The new calendar provides at least some semblance of a racing schedule for this season, although time will tell if racing actually resumes as planned, with any return to competition contingent on a variety of factors related to the way coronavirus pandemic and government responses to it continue to unfold.
“As the security of the athletes and all parties involved remains the priority of the UCI and its partners, the men’s and women’s professional road calendar is under constant evaluation to keep abreast of the evolution of the world health situation,” the UCI said in its statement.
“Depending on this evolution, if need be, the UCI will make any necessary adjustments to the 2020 calendars for the UCI WorldTour and UCI Women’s WorldTour at the next meetings of the Professional Cycling Council and UCI Management Committee, to be held respectively on 9 and 10 June.”