News Digest

Turns out ‘Tour de Thai’ won’t compete with Tour de France any time soon

Much to the surprise of Tour de France organisers, sports officials in Thailand boldly announced they were in talks to host part of the three-week cycling event, as Britain, Corsica and other nations have done. Officials, though, were quick to announce there was a misunderstanding between them and Thai sporting officials, and that they were only discussing staging a low-key one-day race, possibly a criterium, in the Southeast Asian nation.

There are talks indeed but not to bring the Tour to Thailand.

Spokesperson for the Tour de France

Representatives of the Tourism Authority of Thailand said they had been buoyed by fruitful talks with Jean-Etienne Amaury, Chairman of the Amaury Sport Organisation, who organises the Tour de France, last month in Paris and were working on how much of the great race they would stage. Thai officials said they were not certain how many stages of the 21-stage race would be held in the Asian nation.

We’re not sure yet how many stages we will hold whether it is one or two stages or the whole competition. This is something that still needs to be discussed.

TAT governor Thawatchai Arunyik