The 2020 European Road Championships have been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The fourth edition was scheduled to take place in the Italian city of Trento, in the north of the country, from September 9-13. However, they have now been pushed back to September 2021 while the UEC searches for another potential location to hold the 2020 races.
As the UCI tentatively works towards putting a reshuffled racing calendar together, either September 1-5 or September 8-12 have been highlighted as spaces that could be used for the new European Road Championships.
2021 was also supposed to see the first 'Super-European Championships', held in the Belarusian capital of Minsk with riders competing in a variety of disciplines. The postponement of the 2020 Trento Euros would hint that the Minsk meeting will not include road races.
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"Having acknowledged the consequences of the pandemic outbreak in the last few weeks we are pleased with an outcome that satisfies everybody, and puts us in the position to set up the event at its best, and produce the greatest redemption from both the technical and the promotional sides," Maurizio Rossini, a Trentino marketing CEO of Trentino Marketing, said in a press release.
Should a 2020 edition not be held, Elia Viviani (Cofidis) and Amy Pieters (Boels-Dolmans), who won the men's and women's road races in 2019, will continue to wear the European champion's jersey into 2021, as will Ellen Van Dijk (Trek-Segafredo) and Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck - Quick-Step), who won the individual time trial competitions.
"Given how the coronavirus is affecting the economics, we can look forward to the next year’s event as a great opportunity to gather people and share our common thrive for upturn once the emergency will be finally over." Trento tourism board spokesperson Elda Verones said.
