It's (Delayed) Tour de France Time

Today is the start of a delayed Le Tour de France. It's still using the same route originally planned, and it's still 21 days, but (obviously) it's been delayed by quite a bit. We won't be on the streets of Paris in July - instead, it's going to be a September finish. The other major events - Spain and Italy's equivalents of Le Tour, are also delayed, and if I recall correctly, Italy has shortened its Giro by several days since it won't end until October. 

The route for the 2020 Le Tour de France settles in the
middle to lower sections of the nation until the final
day when the riders are in Paris. Today they begin
in Nice, but the route has eight mountain stages with
four summit finishes, nine flat stages (the sprinters
will be happy about that), and three hilly stages.
There is one individual time trial on the
penultimate day. 

It's a flat stage today - three times around Nice making it a day for the sprinters. Everyone will be getting their heads back into the game and getting ready mentally and physically for 21 days of racing after Europe was shut down by COVID-19. This will be a very different Le Tour de France, but I'm still looking forward to it. 

Today's stage is custom made for the sprinters with three circuits
around Nice. The topography isn't entirely flat, but it's not
going to be a hard challenge for the first day. Still, any sprinting
finish has it's own challenges and accidents can take leaders
out as well as support riders. 

Some major participants won't be in this year's race. Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas have been pulled from to head the Vueleta and the Giro instead for Team Ineos, and sprinter Mark Cavendish won't be in France either. There have been the usual rumblings of team disunity and actual arguments between riders on teams, so the question will be, "Will the teams be able to pull together to help their chosen leaders into Paris?" If not, some high-powered teams might be left in shards after this race. 

Team Jumbo-Visma will be missing their third strong rider, Steven
Kruijswijk, who crashed at the Criteium du Dauphine earlier
this month. That final day of du Dauphine was horrible, with
road conditions on the steep, downward slope of the final
climb extremely poor. Gravel on the road caused several
riders to lose control of their bicycles and crash. 

As usual, I'll give you the profile for each stage as we come to it, but that won't stop my "usual" life either, of course. So between the ups and downs of Le Tour, I'll also be filling you in on progress on the woodshed and the rest of the backyard project, as well as my own cleaning and sewing projects on the horizon. Le Tour might be delayed, but it's one more example of life slowly returning to a new normal. Now ... what will Tour organizers do about the crowds, and will everyone have to wear masks? That could be a problem for the athletes. 

Have a grand day for the Grand Depart and I'll be back on Monday. Enjoy your weekend, be safe, stay well and Vive le Tour de France!