News in brief: In order to avoid excessive overlaps with the 2018 World Cup, the UCI decided today to change the 2018 WorldTour racing calendar, in which the Tour de France now only begins on July 7th. Originally, the Tour of France would have started a week earlier.
This decision by the UCI - no matter how understandable it may be from the point of view of the association and the organizer ASO - will cause a lot of displeasure among many cycling fans. In order to avoid overlaps with the 2018 World Cup in Russia, it was decided today to postpone the start of the tour from June 30th to July 7th. The football World Cup takes place from June 14th to July 15th.
Only the first week of the 2018 Tour de France overlaps with the mega event in Russia. The decision should certainly also be a concession to the television stations, which would probably have decided in favor of football in most countries if the two events had overlapped.
"In order to minimize disruptions caused by the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the PCC (Professional Cycling Council) has agreed that the Tour de France should take place one week later than originally planned," the published announcement stated.