Two-Week Grand Tours? No Way, Says Tour de France Boss

Shrinking the Tour de France and the other grand tours to make room for the UCI‘s controversial cycling overhaul?

No way, says Tour boss Christian Prudhomme.

“The Tour de France lasts three weeks, four weekends, and that’s perfectly fine,” Prudhomme told RMC Sport.

Prudhomme said he’s not interested in trimming cycling’s biggest race as proposals to shorten grand tours have kick-started a larger debate over the sport’s crowded calendar.

Speaking just days ahead of the unveiling of the 2027 Tour route, the Tour director defended its current format.

“That question concerns certain grand tours,” he said.

If the Tour vetoes any attempt to tweak the three-week format that dates back to its founding, that leaves the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España squarely on the chopping block.

But the bosses of cycling’s other grand tours aren’t buying into the idea to lose a weekend, either.

UCI mulls radical calendar makeover for 2029

The debate comes as the UCI maps out potential reforms to professional cycling that could be rolled out by as soon as 2029.

Its “Agenda 2030” consultation drew 55 submissions from teams, riders, organizers, federations, sponsors, manufacturers, and broadcasters.

Unveiled during the Montréal road worlds, the outline covers a broad range of issues that are on the table, including the calendar, cycling’s economic model, fan engagement, rider safety, and the integrity of results via doping controls.

Other ideas include a budget cap, sharing some commercial revenues, and improving broadcasting and marketing to reach today’s social-media savvy audience.

The UCI has since appointed Deloitte as a strategic adviser and the initial reform proposals are due to be presented in December, with the first measures potentially arriving in 2029.

One ideal outcome for backers of shorter grand tours is that the biggest stars like Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard, and Remco Evenepoel might race all three rather than just obsessing on the Tour.

Right now, everything is on the table, and no firm proposals have been made.

Giro boss says week 3 is essential

But one of the most contentious ideas is to squeeze the grand tours into three weekends instead of four.

Some are floating the idea of shortening the Giro and Vuelta to 16 or 17 days, but keeping the Tour at 21 stages.

That idea is not without its supporters.

Some see the Giro and Vuelta dragging on too long sometimes, and the argument is that those extra days could free up some space on the calendar and help some races like Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico from overlapping.

The other grand tour bosses are having none of it.

New Giro director Luca Guercilena pushed back during an interview with Domestique at Il Lombardia.

“Grand tours must remain grand tours and the Giro d’Italia isn’t going to change. All three grand tours must be the same length,” the Italian said. “There can be no differences.”

The three-week grand tour format is one that grew organically over time. The first Tour in 1903 stretched across 19 days with just six monster stages averaging more than 400km, separated by rest days.

The Giro and later the Vuelta followed, and the grand tours settled into the now-familiar 21-stage, three-week rhythm.

For Guercilena, the brutal third week is the essential ingredient to what decides a grand tour winner.

“Cycling is an endurance sport, and it’s over three weeks that you can truly see if athletes are endurance riders,” he told RMC Sport. “We have no intention of changing that. I understand the UCI and its president, David Lappartient, who believe that overlapping races aren’t good for anyone. But the grand tours must remain three weeks long.”

Vuelta also opposed to shorter race days

Vuelta director Javier Guillén drew an equally firm line in a recent interview with MARCA.

“We are not in favor of eliminating any days, not even one. It’s true that the debate is ongoing, but at this time, it is not being discussed at any official or institutional level,” Guillén said.

The Giro and Vuelta have long defended their place alongside the Tour, and resisted any efforts to reduce the number of race days.

Of course, race organizers have a vested interest because every race day comes with lucrative host city start and finish fees, TV rights revenue, and fees from the publicity caravan.

“We believe that the days honoring the great icons of cycling should remain untouched, because otherwise we would all be worse off,” Guillén told the Spanish daily. “There’s no point in doing that.”

The Vuelta moved from April to September and now August in 1995, and the new place on the calendar has helped the Spanish grand tour grow in stature.

For 2027, however, the Vuelta will be contested after the UCI Road World Championships for the first time since the switch to make room for the second edition of “super worlds.”