The opening stage of the 2020 Vuelta a España in the Netherlands has been canceled by organizers due to "exceptional global conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic."

Before the pandemic begins to take hold in Europe, the 2020 Vuelta will start in Utrecht on Friday, August 14, and riders will travel south to the Basque Country on Monday for the remainder of the three-week Grand Tour, which will take place in Spain and Portugal.

When the Vuelta was postponed, along with the rest of the cycling calendar, to a new late fall slot after the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia, the three Dutch stages remained intact. However, on Wednesday morning, Vuelta organizer Unipublic announced that "due to exceptional circumstances caused by the COVID-19 crisis, the organizing committee of La Vuelta Hollanda has been forced to cancel the official departure of the race from the Dutch provinces of Utrecht and North Brabant."

"The departure of La Vuelta 20 from the Netherlands was planned as a big summer party. Faced with the impossibility of ensuring the planned development of the official departure of the race with all the necessary guarantees for an event of this character, La Vuelta Hollanda requested the cancellation of the official departure.

Martin van Hulstein, the local director of the Vuelta organization in the Netherlands, said that a combination of logistical problems, including fall road construction in many towns through which the race was scheduled to pass, led to the decision. Utrecht Mayor Jan van Zanen added, "We have decided that there are too many uncertainties regarding the onset of the coronavirus. We are very sorry, but our health comes first."

The Vuelta's decision strongly echoes one of the earliest casualties of the coronavirus pandemic, the three-day start of the 2020 Giro d'Italia in Hungary. Now that the Giro is expected to be held in October, race organizers have yet to confirm whether these stages will be replaced in southern Italy before joining the originally planned route in Sicily, or whether they will simply cut three stages from the three-week race.

There is widespread speculation that the Vuelta will start on Tuesday and end with 18 stages. In that case, the opening stage would be from Irun to the finish at Mount Arate, and local towns have shown enthusiasm for the Vuelta start despite the schedule change to fall.

Race organizers have yet to say whether the two stages in Portugal in week 3 will be affected by the schedule change. According to official statements, Spain is one of the countries most severely affected by the coronavirus. However, measures for social distancing are expected to be in effect for quite some time.

The Vuelta has only started in the Netherlands once, in 2009, and organizers are considering changing the 2020 start to 2022. The Vuelta is scheduled to start in 2021 in the northern Spanish city of Burgos.

Further details from Javier Guillén, organizer of the Vuelta, will be announced later Wednesday.