The 2028 Olympic Games in LA are set to begin on July 14, right in the middle of when the Tour de France typically takes place. While the exact dates for the cycling events haven’t been announced, the Olympics run for 16 days, meaning cyclists must be ready between July 14 and 30—directly overlapping with the Tour de France and the Tour de France Femmes.
This year, the Paris Games began on July 26, which meant a slightly earlier-than-normal Tour start with no Paris finish line, and the Tour de France Femmes was pushed to begin right after the Olympic Games. Despite no direct overlap, with just a few days between events, it was a tight turnaround for racers who crossed the finished line at the Tour on July 21 and needed to be on the start line of the Olympic time trial on August 2.
By contrast, the 2028 start date of mid-July could present a more significant challenge. It would force the Tour de France, organized by the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), to change its dates or risk losing many key riders—something Tour director Christian Prudhomme is unwilling to do.
“We don’t like it,” Prudhomme told Belgian outlet WielerFlits. “What dates will the Tour have in 2028? It’s not up to us. It’s up to the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), so we’ll see. I don’t know if we will go before or after the Olympic Games.”
We also contacted the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift organizers, who told Bicycling they would not comment on this topic.
Of course, the Tour de France and the Olympics aren’t the only races in which pro cyclists participate: A drastic change in the Tour de France dates will have dramatic ripples on the rest of the cycling calendar. Spring Classics and Monuments may become more compressed in the schedule or run even earlier. Races like the Giro d’Italia could see fewer participants thanks to a tightened schedule. And the same applies to the Tour de France Femmes and the women’s racing calendar.
Technically, there is one solution: If the Olympic Games and the UCI could confirm that the cycling events in the Olympics will take place at the very end of the Games, the Tour de France could shift only a few days earlier and still allow riders to attend the Games, albeit miss the starting ceremonies.
However, it’s doubtful that the International Olympic Committee, the UCI, and the ASO will play that nice and coordinate those dates in time so that the ASO does not need to move the race.
Regardless of what happens with the schedule, racers will also have to contend with the dramatic shift from Europe to California, a 9-hour time change, and at least a half-day of flying.
The Olympic Games in Paris made the transition straightforward for Tour de France racers, with a relatively short drive from the Tour finish to the Olympic village. Still, LA will prove a much trickier proposition. In 2021, several racers, including Mathieu Van der Poel, dropped out of the Tour early to get to Tokyo to adjust to the time change ahead of the Olympic Games, so many would likely do the same if the Tour schedule is just tightened and not shifted.
Molly writes about cycling, nutrition and training with an emphasis on bringing more women into sport. She's the author of nine books including the Shred Girls series and is the founder of Strong Girl Publishing. She co-hosts The Consummate Athlete Podcast and spends most of her free time biking and running on trails, occasionally joined by her mini-dachshund.
