Tour de France 2020: Christian Prudhomme and team staff have coronavirus
- Published
Race director Christian Prudhomme and staff members from four teams have tested positive
Tour de France race director Christian Prudhomme and members of staff from four teams have tested positive for Covid-19.
Every rider returned a negative test though, so all 22 teams started the 10th stage of the tour.
French health authorities and Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) have said if two members of a team test positive, the team would be excluded.
But the four staff members who tested positive are from different teams.
Backroom staff from Ineos Grenadiers, Mitchelton-Scott, Team Cofidis and AG2R La Mondiale tested positive and have left the race bubble.
A statement from the Tour's organisers said: "No rider has tested positive for Covid-19 or is considered a contact case requiring quarantine."
Prudhomme will quarantine for seven days and was not part of the race bubble.
Francois Lemarchand will take Prudhomme's place in the lead car from stage 10 to 16.
French prime minister Jean Castex was in the lead car with Prudhomme during stage eight on Saturday.
Analysis
Matt Warwick - BBC Sport
Prudhomme's positive test suggests the race might be wise to consider implementing tests more regularly. The system they have in place sees temperatures taken daily along with a questionnaire about symptoms - but those tests will fail to pick up anyone with the virus who is asymptomatic. The race's only remaining scheduled test is on the next rest day on Monday, 14 September.
Michelton-Scott is one of the teams to have a staff member who has had to leave their 'bubble' after failing a test - and they were asymptomatic. "Everyone else is doing well," they tell me.
They are a very close team, many members of whom have been there from the start. It will feel harsh should, under the current system, they fall foul of ASO's direction that teams could be expelled from the race if there are two cases within one bubble.