Organizers of the 2021 Tour de France Grand Depart in Copenhagen have confirmed to Danish broadcaster DR that Tour organizer ASO has sent a request to move the Grand Depart date to resolve a conflict with the start of the Tokyo Olympics.

The Olympics will be held in Tokyo, Japan.

The Olympics were postponed to March, from July 23 to August 8, 2021, due to a coronavirus pandemic that has cost the IOC and Japanese organizers as much as $2.7 billion to change the dates. The elite men's road race is now scheduled for July 24, 2021, which clashes with the finish of the 2021 Tour de France, scheduled to end on June 25.

Following the Tour de France opening time trial in Copenhagen, two additional road stages in Denmark are scheduled for July 2-4.

"I can confirm that we have received a request from the Tour de France management to discuss contractual dates for the Tour starting in Denmark in 2021," Frank Jensen, mayor of Copenhagen and president of the local organization group, told DR. Jensen told DR.

Jensen did not specify the new dates ASO is requesting, but presumably they are asking for earlier dates so that the athletes can travel from France to Tokyo in time for the road event.

However, the weeks before the originally scheduled Grande Pearl dates are already filled with European Championship soccer matches.

If the race were moved up a week, the new dates, June 25, 26, and 27, would be just before the 1/8 soccer final scheduled for June 28 in Copenhagen.

Copenhagen organizers were already concerned that the dates of the Tour de France and the UEFA Championship scheduled for 2021 were so close together that it would strain the city's resources. If the Tour were to be held earlier, the Tour stage would be sandwiched between the two soccer matches.

"If we have a contract with each other and one of us says there is something wrong with the contract, of course we need to talk about it together. Because we have approached the management of the Tour de France in the past," said Frank Jensen. Frank Jensen said.

The deal with Copenhagen is very specific for July 2-4, 2021, Jensen said. Negotiations to hold the tour three days after the final match were already difficult; moving the tour between the June 21 and June 28 matches would be even more labor intensive.

"Now that we have mastered the soccer and the dates are set, it would obviously be a big problem if the dates were shifted," Jensen said.

Danish Football Federation president Jesper Moller said he was willing to discuss changing the dates, but stressed that the dates were set by UEFA.

"If the mayor of Copenhagen wants to consider it, of course we will. But it is a UEFA competition, it is a UEFA match, and from UEFA's point of view the match program is solid."