The French newspaper Dauphiné Libéré (opens in new tab) reported Tuesday that it had received exclusive information about plans to hold the 2020 Tour de France between August 29 and September 20.

Organizer ASO had planned to wait until May 15 to make a decision on postponing the race due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but that plan was forced through on Monday after French President Emmanuel Macron announced a ban on large gatherings at least until mid-July.

ASO confirmed to the Associated Press (opens in new tab) on Tuesday that it is in talks with the UCI about a new date for the French Grand Tour.

"We are in talks with (the International Cycling Union) to find a new date, as it is no longer possible for the Tour to start on the dates that were planned," the ASO said, according to the APNews report.

Speculation circulated on Tuesday that the Tour de France, originally scheduled to start on June 27, would be held in August, and Marca reported that an agreement between the Grand Tour organizers gave priority to the Tour de France in the revised calendar. The Vuelta a España will reportedly be held in September and the Giro d'Italia in October.

If the August 29-September dates are correct, the final stage on the Champs-Elysées in Paris would coincide with the first day of the UCI Road World Championships in Aigle, Switzerland, where the elite men's individual time trial will be held.

Whether or not a change in the Tour de France schedule is realistic depends on the actions of governments around the world to ensure that coronavirus infection rates drop to acceptable levels and that countries lift travel restrictions.

Governments around the world are facing tremendous pressure to ease the tight blockade as the economic impact of the pandemic has created massive unemployment and placed an enormous burden on social services and health care.

The French government has extended the blockade until May 11 and, according to recent reports, expects the economy to contract 8% this year. According to Budget Minister Gerard Darmanan and France Info, France's budget deficit has exceeded World War II levels, pushing it to 9% of gross domestic product.

The announcement of new dates for the Tour de France comes before the effects of the existing blockade have been confirmed. Although the reported death toll appears to have peaked, Imperial College models suggest that in the absence of a widely available vaccine, a second wave of the pandemic is expected to occur in approximately six weeks, once viral suppression measures such as the ban on large gatherings are lifted.

Even if France gets the virus under control and loosens restrictions on May 11, a second round of suppression may be necessary even before the rescheduled dates.

In any case, the ASO announced the dates for the Grande Pearl in Nice on August 29, and the first mountain stage in the Pyrenees is expected to take place two months after the originally scheduled dates.

The first rest day will be the Monday before the race heads into the Alps with a summit finish at Grand Colombier on September 13. The mountainous course of the third week of the Tour will climax with a 36-km uphill time trial to La Planche des Belle Filles before the final parade to Paris on September 20.