World Wars Stopped the Tour de France. Now Coronavirus Has, Too.

But if the Tour is delayed much longer, it could bump into the Vuelta a España, scheduled for Aug. 14 to Sept. 6, and the world championships, at the end of September. The first of the three grand tours, the Giro d’Italia, has already been postponed from May and is also looking for a new date. With each Tour normally filling three weeks, the calendar is tight.

Christian Prudhomme, the director of the Tour, expressed confidence in March that the race would go on, saying, “Only two world wars were able to stop the Tour de France.” Covid-19 has now done the same.

Table Tennis, Anyone?

Tuesday’s sports schedule included three soccer games, all friendlies in Sweden, a dozen hockey games in Russia and … more than 250 table tennis matches.

Maybe it’s the social distancing between players that the table provides. Maybe it’s … well, that’s all we can think of. But in any case, Russia, Ukraine and the Czech Republic are packing in table tennis matches, running them virtually all day long.

Perhaps some Eastern European Ping-Pong enthusiasts are excited about these games, but they could hardly be crossing over to mainstream sports fans. Or could they?

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/sports/cycling/coronavirus-tour-de-france-table-tennis-nfl.html