Face masks and selfie bans return to limit COVID-19 in Tour de France peloton

EF Education-EasyPost riders wear face masks before stage 1 of the Critérium du Dauphiné
EF Education-EasyPost riders wear face masks before stage 1 of the Critérium du Dauphiné (Image credit: Getty Images)

The Tour de France will again enforce a COVID-19 protocol in this year's race, with positive cases at the recent Giro d’Italia highlighting concerns that even while the pandemic is officially over, the virus can still have a major influence on races.

On May 5th 2023 the World Health Organisation declared that the COVID-19 pandemic was no longer a global health emergency. However, in the 2023 Giro d’Italia a spate of cases in the first half of the race, notably causing overall leader Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) to quit the race, heightened fears of the virus' ability to affect professional cycling.

In 2022, 16 riders abandoned the Tour after catching COVID-19 and five quit the race before it started for the same reason. There were 135 finishers last year, the lowest total since 2000. 

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Alasdair Fotheringham

Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The IndependentThe GuardianProCycling, The Express and Reuters.