Friday 23 June 2017 at 21h27
It was the surprise announcement made by the UCI yesterday and it was confirmed to velowire.com by A.S.O. today: the Tour de France 2018 will start one week later than planned and it will thus take place from 7 till 29 July 2018. Furthermore, the UCI announced that the number of riders will be reduced to 8 instead of 9 per team, as asked for by A.S.O. for 2017 already ...
The dates of the Tour de France 2018: from Saturday 7 till Sunday 29 July 2018
As usual, the Professional Cycling Council (PCC), of which Christian Prudhomme is one of the members, not directly in his role as the director of the Tour de France but in this case as a "Member designated by the other organisors of the UCI WorldTour, member of the AIOCC", which defines the calendar of the UCI WorldTour.During the PCC meeting which took place in Geneva yesterday, the calendar of the UCI WorldTour 2018 was one of the main topics on the agenda and here's what has been decided:
- maintaining and extending to 5 days (instead of 4) the Abu Dhabi Tour early in the season
- A travers la Flandre will take place one week later than this year
- the start one week later of the Tour de France 2018, that is from Saturday 7 till Sunday 29 July 2018 in order to minimise the disruption resulting from the 2018 FIFA World Cup
- some other modifications in the dates of the events in the second half of the season, following the change of date for the Tour (this concerns the following races: Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian, Tour de Pologne, Binck Bank Tour (formerly known as Eneco Tour), Tour of Spain)
Here's what the provisional calendar of the UCI WorldTour 2018 thus looks like:
16-21 Jan 18 Santos Tour Down Under
28 Jan 18 Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race
21-25 Feb 18 Abu Dhabi Tour
24 Feb 18 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Elite
03 Mar 18 Strade Bianche
04-11 Mar 18 Paris-Nice
07-13 Mar 18 Tirreno-Adriatico
17 Mar 18 Milano-Sanremo
19-25 Mar 18 Volta Ciclista a Catalunya
23 Mar 18 Record Bank E3 Harelbeke
25 Mar 18 Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields
28 Mar 18 Dwars door Vlaanderen - A travers la Flandre
01 Apr 18 Ronde van Vlaanderen - Tour des Flandres
02-07 Apr 18 Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco
08 Apr 18 Paris-Roubaix
15 Apr 18 Amstel Gold Race
18 Apr 18 La Flèche Wallonne
22 Apr 18 Liège-Bastogne-Liège
24-29 Apr 18 Tour de Romandie
01 May 18 Eschborn-Frankfurt - Rund um den Finanzplatz
05-27 May 18 Giro d'Italia
13-19 May 18 Amgen Tour of California
03-10 Jun 18 Critérium du Dauphiné
09-17 Jun 18 Tour de Suisse
07-29 Jul 18 Tour de France
29 Jul 18 Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic
04 Aug 18 Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian
04-10 Aug 18 Tour de Pologne
13-19 Aug 18 Binck Bank Tour
19 Aug 18 EuroEyes Cyclassics Hamburg
25 Aug 18 - 16 Sep 18 La Vuelta ciclista a España
26 Aug 18 Bretagne Classic - Ouest-France
07 Sep 18 Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec
09 Sep 18 Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal
06 Oct 18 Il Lombardia
09-14 Oct 18 Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey
16-21 Oct 18 Gree-Tour of Guangxi
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The programme of the Grand Départ of the Tour de France 2018 in the Vendée department
Some doubts remained on whether this information was final and confirmed as for the Tour de France 2018 because even though the official Tour de France accounts on the social networks published the new dates (with the image of the map showing the initial dates, like the one shown next to this text), the page dedicated to the Grand Départ of the Tour de France 2018 on the official web site still shows the initial dates at the time of publication of this article and the organisor didn't send out a press release to confirm this change. Questioned on this topic, A.S.O. however confirmed me that the informations in the UCI press release are indeed confirmed.The programme of the Grand Départ of the Tour de France 2018 will thus be modified as follows:
- Wednesday 4 July 2018: opening of the Permanence and the press room
- Thursday 5 July 2018: team presentation for the Tour de France 2018
- Saturday 7 July 2018: 1st stage - Noirmoutier-en-Île > Fontenay-le-Comte - 195 km
- Sunday 8 July 2018: 2nd stage - Mouilleron-Saint Germain > La Roche-sur-Yon - 185 km
- Monday 9 July 2018: 3rd stage - Cholet > Cholet - team time trial - 35 km
- Tuesday 10 July 2018: 4th stage - La Baule > ???
For more information, you can check the article The details of the Grand Départ of the Tour de France 2018 in the Vendée department in France.
One less rider per team in the Tour de France, the Tour of Italy and the Tour of Spain
As the organisors of these races (and of some classics) had decided for 2017 already, before the UCI told them it was not going through, the PCC has decided that, starting 2018, the size of teams taking part in the three Grand Tours will be reduced from the current 9 to 8, thereby reducing the peloton size to a maximum of 176 and assisting in efforts to ensure the safety of the peloton and the rest of the race convoy.The PCC also explained that it is intended that the maximum peloton size for other races in the UCI WorldTour and the UCI Continental Circuits will also be reduced to 176, which is not the same as what the organisors had asked for: a maximum of 7 riders per team in the other races.
An evolution being "tested" in the Tour de France 2017
After having tested it already in the Tour of Switzerland this year, an evolution will also be tested in the Tour de France 2017 which will start next week in Düsseldorf and which will change the time gap for a split to three seconds – instead of one for the calculation of time gaps in stages expected to have bunch sprint finishes.This evolution is intended to address the issue of increased stress and risk during Grand Tour bunch sprints, while retaining the sporting integrity of the sprint and stage.door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Tour de France | Tour de France 2018 | UCI ProTour | Vuelta a España | Giro d Italia
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