COVID-19 continues to circulate in the Tour de France peloton with stage winners Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost) and Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech) both testing positive before stage 15. Both have left the race.
“Magnus Cort woke up this morning with a headache and fever and has since tested positive for COVID-19. He will not start stage 15 of the Tour de France. His medical evaluation is ongoing,” EF Education-EasyPost announced as the team arrived in Rodez for the stage start.
Cort wore the polka-dot jersey in the early stage of the 2022 Tour de France after going on the attack on stages 2 and 3, delighting the huge Danish crowds. He then won stage 10 to Megève after going in the break of the day.
Clarke won stage 5 to Wallers across the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix. Israel-Premier Tech said he tested positive for COVID-19 in a routine test but all the other riders were negative.
“After an internal routine test carried out by the team, unfortunately Simon Clarke has returned a positive Covid test. Therefore, Simon won’t take the start of stage 15. All other riders returned negative tests and are ready to race today,” Israel-Premier Tech announced.
As per the UCI COVID-19 protocol, all the riders, staff and race officials will undergo a rapid antigen test on Sunday evening or during the rest day in Carcassonne.
The recently revised protocol allows riders to continue in the Tour de France if a PCR test detects a low viral load as was the case with Bob Jungels and Rafa Majka.
Eight riders have now tested positive for COVID-19 during this year's Tour de France.
Warren Barguil was the sixth rider to abandon the Tour de France due to COVID-19 before stage 13, following Luke Durbridge (BikeExchange-Jayco), Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R Citroën), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), and the UAE Team Emirates duo of George Bennett and Vegard Stake Laengen.
Numerous others tested positive in the days leading up to the Tour and had to be replaced by reserve riders.
