Last updated on .From the section Cycling

Team Ineos' Egan Bernal won the 2019 Tour after a battle with team-mate Geraint Thomas

Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome is expecting an announcement about the race on Wednesday.

The British Team Ineos rider, 34, posted on social media: external-link "Up and at it! Big news coming from the Tour today!"

Cycling's biggest event looks set to be postponed following the French government's extension of a ban on mass gatherings because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Race organisers ASO have been contacted for comment.

Froome, who also Tweeted this picture, won the Tour in 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2017

French president Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that restrictions on public events would continue until mid-July.

The race, won by Froome's Ineos team-mate Egan Bernal last year, is due to run from 27 June to 19 July.

Froome is set for a return in this year's Tour, which is due to start in Nice, after he missed last year's race following a high-speed accident in which he broke his neck, femur, elbow, hip and ribs.

Colombian Bernal won last year's race following a battle with Britain's Geraint Thomas, who won the 2018 edition.

Thomas said he hoped the Tour can be rearranged for later in the summer.

"It's the pinnacle of cycling," he said. "It represents the sport and certainly it's the thing that's keeping me going at the minute.

"You've just got that target down the line. It's hard when you don't know when it's going to be to try and stay in that positive frame of mind.

"In my head I'm just thinking the Tour is definitely going to happen. I don't know when but hopefully it does. It would be great for everyone."

On 10 April, cycling's governing body furloughed staff and cut leaders' salaries as a result of the global pandemic.

The International Cycling Union blamed the postponement of the Olympics and Paralympics, plus losing much of its annual calendar, for the move.

The Giro d'Italia has already been called off, along with the 'monument' one-day races: Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.

As it stands, the annual Road World Championships remain scheduled to take place at the end of September in Switzerland.