Cycling frames its COVID-19 exclusion regulations on the eve of the initial phase of the Tour de France following court cases in groups that feared that its runners would be unduly excluded from the race.
After meeting with team officials, the ICU said Friday that a team will not be automatically sent home if two of its runners test positive for the virus, as planned.
According to the revised protocol, it will depend on the organizers of the Tour de France if they exclude a full team from the race.
“In the case of two or more riders from the same team who tested positive for COVID-19 within seven days of a Grand Tour, the UCI will give the organizer permission of the occasion to announce the team’s withdrawal for fitness reasons,” the UCI said.
Four members of the Belgian Lotto-Soudal team were sent home Thursday after “non-negative” coronavirus tests. The team claimed that a mechanic and a runner’s assistant had returned “a positive result and a suspicious result.” They both left the racing bubble with their roommates.
The ICU said the revisions “are designed to optimize the interpretation of a positive viral diagnosis and verify that it corresponds well to a recent coronavirus infection.”
On the occasion of a positive result, the ICU also suggested that organizers “do everything possible” to draw a new and blood before the next step.
“These additional tests will be a very additional detail in the overall medical evaluation, which will assess the contagious or non-contagious nature of the runner (or team member),” he said.
The measure points to positive false tests that can exclude healthy runners.
The UCI stated that team members who tested positive for the race will be remote and will have to leave if a moment check cannot be completed in time.
The German team Bora-Hansgrohe among those who expressed fear after a first test whether their drivers first tested positive and then negative on Tuesday, resulting in their entire team’s withdrawal from the Brittany Classic’s one-day race.
Initially, the Tour’s COVID-19 protocol stipulated that groups would be expelled if at least two of their cyclists or members tested positive for the virus within seven days.
“Today’s changes in the ICU protocol have allowed us to strike the right balance between the valid considerations of groups facing the threat of exclusion and the important preservation of the physical form of the platoon,” said ICU President David Lappartient.
———
More AP Sports: https://apnews.com/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports
24/7 policy of the latest news and events