All Tour Riders Test Negative for COVID-19, except Christian Prudhomme and Four Staff Members

All Tour riders test negative for COVID-19, four staff members test positive including race organiser Christian Prudhomme who leaves the Tour for eight days

All 22 teams started the 10th stage of the Tour de France after their riders tested negative for COVID-19, organisers said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that four members of staff had returned positive tests.

Four teams who have had staff members test positive and the consequences of a second positive test in the coming seven days. Ineos, Cofidis, AG2R La Mondiale and Mitchelton-Scott are the teams involved.

French health authorities and organisers Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) had said that should two members of a team, riders or staff, test positive for the novel coronavirus, the whole outfit would be excluded from the race. But the organisers told Reuters that the team members testing positive were from different outfits so all teams start stage 10 of the race.

Christian Prudhomme has confirmed his positive test for COVID-19 to AFP. “I’m leaving the Tour for eight days. I’m going to do what any French employee would do in this kind of case,” said Prudhomme, who said that he had tested negative in PCR tests prior to the Tour on August 6, 20 and 27. “From the information I’ve been given, it’s just happened. I’m going to watch the Tour on television, something I haven’t done for 15 years."

ASO has released a separate statement on Christian Prudhomme's positive test for COVID-19, “The testing campaign revealed that Christian Prudhomme has tested positive for COVID-19. The Director of the Tour de France, taking his 4th test in 1 month, will now quarantine for 7 days."

"Although he was not part of the ‘race bubble’ and had not been in direct contact with any of the riders and their entourage, Christian Prudhomme still decided to get tested."

"The anti-COVID-19 protocol, which provides reinforced protection for the ‘race bubble,’ distinct from others in the organisation allows for the following plan to be put in place following such a situation, In the absence of Christian Prudhomme from the 10th stage from Île d’Oléron to Île de Ré until the 16th stage from La Tour du Pin to Villard de Lans, François Lemarchand, who was in the lead car on Paris-Nice, will occupy Christian Prudhomme’s place in the lead car. Jean-Michel Monin, meanwhile, will replace François Lemarchand in the no. 3 car.”