The Portuguese Cycling Federation (FPC) will organize the “possible” Tour of Portugal in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, with Delmino Pereira promising that he will do everything to make the race happen, but recognizing that there are factors impossible to control.
Aviludo-Louletano and Atum General-Tavira-Maria Nova Hotel are the Algarve teams that will compete in the competition…if it happens.
“What we can guarantee is that we will do everything in our power to organize the Volta a Portugal 'special edition 2020'. The rest… in fact, there are factors that are not possible to control, especially this disease, its instability. It is the greatest difficulty of all difficulties, because it does not allow us to plan, it does not allow us to say with certainty what our great objective is, which is, in fact, to organize the Tour», acknowledged the president of the FPC.
In an interview with Lusa agency, Delmino Pereira pointed out a possible negative evolution of the pandemic in national territory – with a boom of cases in Eve of the race, rescheduled between September 27th and October 5th – as «the main» factor that would force the federation to «dismantle the Volta».
"I hope it's just that one, that the others will be able to dominate them," he blurted out. Among these factors, the most pressing seem to be the local authorities, so the FPC has already started the mission to explain "door to door, case by case", what measures it will implement to organize the main race of the national calendar "with the rules defined by the Directorate-General for Health (DGS)", and what are the constraints inherent to a "special edition", conditioned by the pandemic.
Although the work with the local authorities is still "in an initial approach", Delmino Pereira believes that the special edition of Volta a Portugal will be very similar to the 82nd edition, which should go on the road between 29 July and 9 August and was postponed, although he admits that, if the municipalities remain reluctant to pass the caravan, they may have to give up mythical stages, such as the Torre or Senhora da Graça.
«We will make the return that is possible. It's a race, you must have your balance, your mountain space, flat, for time trialists. It must be a test with head, torso and limbs. We will do everything possible, but we still have many climbs in Portugal to discover. It will necessarily have to be a Tour of Portugal more or less like what we know», he clarified.
«Here, the most important factor is that the Volta a Portugal is an event of national interest. It is an event that interests our country. We need to bring to the street other events that will give some encouragement to our society, and Volta can be that special event and it can be an event that helps the economy in the low season. It can be an event that gives color, that promotes national pride, the spirit of resilience, resistance, our obligation and our ability to overcome a disease that, at the moment, we are not able to overcome», he highlighted.
Noting that society is "completely exhausted", the president of the FPC believes that it is necessary to "offer a little emotion and joy and even positive energy to the population", and "nothing better than seeing a platoon pass" to achieve it, a conviction that he transmitted both to the Government and to the President of the Republic.
“By then, there will be fewer people on the street, it won't be as hot, many people will already be working. We are going to take a responsible test, but, in fact, we have to go on living. That was the challenge [transmitted to the national authorities] and it is a characteristic recognized by the whole society, and also by the President of the Republic, the importance of having an event of this dimension, which motivates us, and makes us face the future with more hope ", he pointed out, hoping that Volta reach "this status" through the voice of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
Delmino Pereira also denied any dispute with the Podium, saying that he understood that the Volta a Portugal concession had "a commercial logic", which in a pandemic context, given "special circumstances and the "many rules that the DGS" imposed, "was not possible to run”, a reality that led the FPC to move forward to organize the race on the new dates.
"So we had to move towards an alternative solution and I think we'll find a solution that's good for everyone", he added, noting that the situations that led the company not to be able to organize the race this year are "perfectly understandable and acceptable".
"These are circumstances that we will have to accept, because they are contractual in nature," he concluded.
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