All Tour de France riders in the clear, but race director tests positive for coronavirus
None of the 166 remaining riders at the Tour de France have tested positive for Covid-19 following the latest round of testing, but race director Christian Prudhomme has and will now quarantine for seven days.
Prudhomme rides in the No 1 car in the race convoy and had the French prime minister Jean Castex in his car with him last weekend.
Tour organisers ASO also confirmed four positive Covid-19 tests, not involving riders, at four different teams. The teams in question are Ineos Grenadiers, Mitchelton-Scott, Cofidis and AG2R La Mondiale.
At least one of those positives may still be overturned. The member of staff who tested positive at Ineos is understood to be having a second PCR test, and a serological test, to determine whether it was a "false positive".
With the possibility of teams being sent home if they had two or more positive tests within their ranks, speculation reached fever pitch before the start of stage 10 from Ile d’Oleron to Ile de Re when ASO finally released a statement at 11.50am BST.
The statement said that riders and staff from all 22 teams, as well as officials in the "race bubble" — 841 people in total — underwent testing on Sunday and Monday, their first tests since the grand depart in Nice on Aug 29. No riders tested positive.
The statement added that one member of staff at each of Ineos Grenadiers, Mitchelton-Scott, Cofidis and AG2R La Mondiale had tested positive, as well as one "technical service provider" who had now left the race.
Those four teams will now be sweating, with Covid-19 protocols dictating that any team found to have two positives within their ranks within a seven-day period must leave the race. The next round of testing is scheduled for the second rest day in Isere next Monday.
ASO’s statement was soon followed by another confirming earlier reports that Prudhomme had tested positive for Covid-19.
ASO were quick to point out that Prudhomme had not been part of the "race bubble" — his role at the Tour also involves meeting and greeting VIPs — and he had “not been in direct contact with any of the riders or their entourage”.
François Lemarchand, who was in the No 1 car at Paris-Nice earlier this year, will take over in-race duties from Prudhomme for the next week, with Prudhomme working remotely.
Earlier on Tuesday an ambulance was spotted at the Deceuninck-QuickStep hotel. The Belgian team said that one of their team members had had to be retested after an “error” at the lab. The retest came back negative.
