Three Grand Tours in 71 days: A proposed new WorldTour calendar has been leaked

A revised racing calendar that will be presented to the UCI has leaked. The proposed calendar would see all three Grand Tours raced within 71 days, overlapping with four Monuments as well as other stage races.

Spanish newspaper AS has published the possible new racing calendar, devised by race organisers, with the Tour de France taking place on its new announced dates, August 29 - September 20. The Giro d'Italia then follows from October 3-25 and would overlap with the Vuelta a España, which is slated for October 20 - November 8.

The scheme will apparently be decided on during a meeting with other stakeholders and the UCI on Tuesday, when cycling's governing body is set to publish their plan for the 2020 season. No dates contained in the proposed calendar have been confirmed, however, and other options are said to remain on the table.

In this rumoured calendar, the season would resume with Strade Bianche on August 1, with the Tour of Poland following between August 5-9 and Milan - San Remo on Saturday August 8th. The Critérium du Dauphiné would take place two weeks before the Tour de France, from August 12-16.

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Tirreno-Adriatico would take place during the Tour de France, while the BinckBank Tour, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Amstel Gold Race would clash with the Giro d'Italia as the biggest races in the world are squeezed into a two and a half month period.

The Vuelta last week announced they had been forced to cancel the opening stages in the Netherlands, meaning the Spanish Grand Tour, if it goes ahead, will be shortened to 18 stages.

The last race in this calendar would be Il Lombardia on Sunday November 14, although other races that don't feature in the calendar, including the Tour of Guangxi and GPs de Montréal and Quebec, have not yet been postponed and are still scheduled to take place in the autumn.

At the time of the announcement of the new Tour de France dates, UCI President David Lappartient said: "We still have work to do to finalise the establishment of an entirely revised 2020 UCI International Calendar given the coronavirus pandemic that has shaken the world, but a first very important step has been taken today.

"Likewise, we have established a framework that will allow the fundamental rights of teams’ riders and staff to be preserved, while enabling the measures necessary for the survival of these teams to be taken. Together, we will manage to get through this crisis and rebuild cycling post-Covid-19."