This year’s Giro d’Italia cycling race has been postponed due to coronavirus fears, race organisers RCS said on Friday.

No new date for the first Grand Tour of the season, originally set for May 9-31, has been announced.

“RCS, having taken note of the national and international situation, announce the postponement of the 2020 Giro,” a statement said.

“The new date will not be announced until April 3,” it added.

Italy has put a stop to all sporting events taking place until April 3 in a country-wide lockdown aimed at slowing the deadly outbreak.

Earlier on Friday, Hungary’s government announced the three opening stages of the race set for the country had been cancelled due to emergency measures introduced by Budapest.

“(Organisers in Italy and Hungary) have agreed that both parties are determined to work together to enable Giro d’Italia to depart from Hungary at a later time,” Hungarian organisers said.  

The International Cycling Union (UCI) will meet with RCS, Tour de France organisers ASO, teams and riders in Switzerland on Tuesday to discuss the rest of the season.

Earlier, the eight-day Paris-Nice was cut to seven days due to COVID-19 worries with the race coming to an end with Saturday’s 166.5km run to La Colmiane.

RCS has already announced the cancelling of the Strade-Bianche and the postponment of the Milan-San Remo and Tirreno-Adriatico.

 

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