June Dates For Tour De France Canceled, Bets In The Air

• The Tour de France has been canceled for the first time since World War II because of the Coronavirus outbreak.
• No new dates have been scheduled yet as so many other sporting events have been taking up the Fall calendar.

BOSTON – The famous cycling competition, the Tour de France, has been postponed for the first time in 74 years due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

News of the postponement came on Tuesday after much consideration by the organization in charge of the race. The Tour was set to take place on June 27 for a duration of three weeks set in the French Riviera.

But all competitive sports in France have been canceled until at least the middle of July because of COVID-19 concerns. The Tour de France joins the ranks of Wimbledon in international summer sporting events to fall victim to the virus.

Betting Odds Prior to Cancelation

Legal sports betting sites had futures odds for the Tour de France months in advance of the event. The front-runner favorite was 23-year-old Colombian cyclist, Egan Bernal (+225). Bernal was the winner of the race in 2019 and would have gone into the 2020 competition as the reigning champion to defend his title.

His win in 2019 made him the first champion of the race from a Latin American country. The total odds for the 2020 Tour de France as of Tuesday were as follows:

The favorite Bernal has not been training for the race because of the social distancing guidelines that have been set into place to stop the spread of the outbreak. He was in favor of a postponement before it was announced, fearing that competitors would not be at their best if they were not training because of COVID-19.

“This lockdown affects us all, even for the Tour if it is done in July, because some favorites may fail, the preparation is different,” said Bernal in March. “It is better that it could have been postponed.”

When Will The Tour Take Place?

Canceling the Tour de France has left many questions unanswered. For one, when will the new dates be set? There are no real answers to this question for now as so many different sporting events have had to be rescheduled this year. Organizers of the event do not want any crossover between big competitions.

“Given that it’s now impossible that the Tour starts at its planned date, we are consulting with the International Cycling Union to try and find new dates,” said race organizers on Tuesday.

The Tour is looking toward the Fall months for rescheduled dates. However, that may prove to be a difficult task because of all of the events now taking up the calendar due to the pandemic.

Organizers do not want to hold a closed event as they wish to allow fans and sports bettors to be in attendance. They also do not want to overlap with all of the other sports that may be happening. Finding new dates to hold the Tour de France will take some time to be properly worked out.

“We have to reinvent ourselves, and me first of all. We are vulnerable,” said Emmanuel Macron, President of France on Monday. “When can we hope for an end to this? I understand you have many questions and I would like to answer all of them. But I say in all humility, we don’t have definitive answers today.”

News tags: Coronavirus | COVID-19 | Egan Bernal | Emmanuel Macron | International Cycling Union | Tour de France | Tour de France canceled | Tour de France odds