Organisers of the Postnord Tour of Denmark announced the cancellation of the 2020 event. The race had been given a date of September 1st - 5th on the revised UCI road calendar.
Martin Elleberg Petersen, director of the Danish Cycling Union (DCU) told Ekstra Bladet that the difficulty of holding the race in conflict with the Tour de France was one factor surrounding the decision to cancel.
"The position [on the calendar] means that the attention around the race will be different," Elleberg Petersen said. "And maybe some of the good Danish and foreign riders can't participate because they have to race in France instead."
The DCU requested a September date but did not know the Tour de France would be run concurrently with the date they were given. The Tour starts on August 29 in Nice and runs through September 20.
"We applied for the race dates at the beginning of September more than a month ago and we did not know then whether the Tour de France was moved or whether it was going to be held at all.
"And we couldn't apply for dates later in the year, because then the weather in Denmark would simply be too bad."
The coronavirus pandemic has put all mass gatherings on hold in much of the world through the end of August. Elleberg Petersen said health considerations would have made holding the race challenging.
"We think it is more than just difficult to try to hold such a big bike race on the other side of September 1.
"We cannot separate the audience or do coronavirus tests of all the participants, as you can for example in the Super League in football. There is also uncertainty about the opening of borders. If they are not opened, we can not get foreign riders, and then the race loses a lot of value."
