Following last week's announcement by the UCI and the ASO, the organizer of the Tour de France, that the Tour will be rescheduled from August 29 to September due to a coronavirus pandemic, opinions are rife as to whether the date is realistic and whether the Tour is the right one. The opinions are all over the place. [Ralph Denk, director of the Bora-Hansgrohe WorldTour team, which includes Peter Sagan, Emmanuel Buchmann, and Rafal Mayka, is one of the strongest advocates of holding the Tour on the newly proposed dates.

"It's more than a glimmer of hope; I firmly believe that it will roll down the start ramp in Nice on August 29," Denk told the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Tuesday. [But with the Tour plus the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España, two Grand Tours and monuments (cycling's five major one-day races) that will be held before the end of the season, it seems extremely unrealistic to me."

"If we hold the Tour in September, the World Championships and the Giro can be held in October. And the Vuelta in December would be the climax of the season. As a team, we will be ready to race until Christmas."

"If we can compete in five monuments, we will have saved almost all of cycling. At the end of that year I would say we were in a good position."

Asked if such a busy schedule of events was feasible for the team and its officials in terms of logistics, Denk said yes.

"By the time the race resumes, everyone should be rested.

Even if only the Tour de France were held, Denk suggested that it would be much needed publicity for the teams and the sport's sponsors.

"I can live with that," he told the newspaper's website, Faz.net. But if the race doesn't happen, that would be a huge setback for cycling."

Many teams, including Bahrain McLaren, Lotto Soudal, the CCC team, Mitchelton-Scott, and Astana, have cut salaries for riders and staff amid the ongoing crisis, but Bora-Hansgrohe is so far keeping the books clean.

"We have great partners who are keeping their commitments and investments," Denk said. 'We've decided to pay the riders' and team staff's salaries in full during the month of April, and then we'll decide what to do month by month in May, June, and July. All we know at the moment is that the Tour starts on August 29."

Denk added, "I believe that despite the crisis, sponsors will largely fulfill their financial contracts throughout the sport. However, the economic recession will make it significantly more difficult to generate sponsorship money for sports."

[22 [whether it is cycling, soccer, or handball. The majority [of sponsors and potential sponsors] will have less budget available for the upcoming season."