Dole, France, July 9 (AFP\/APP): French rider Geoffrey Bouchard of the AG2R team has withdrawn from the Tour de France after testing positive for Covid-19 ahead of Saturday’s 8th stage between Dole and Lausanne.<\/p>\n
The 30-year-old Tour debutant is the first cyclist to pull out with Covid — teams have been maintaining a strict protocol of constant mask wearing.<\/p>\n
Suffering throughout the seventh stage, Bouchard underwent an antigen test, which came back positive.<\/p>\n
Bouchard — King of the Mountains in the 2019 Vuelta a Espana and the 2021 Giro d’Italia — eas immediately isolated from the rest of the teams.
\nTheir tests returned negative.<\/p>\n
“During the stage, I did not feel well,” said Bouchard.
\n“It’s a huge disappointment because we were just getting to my favourite terrain, the mountains.<\/p>\n
“It was my first Tour de France and it’s sad to end it like this.”
\nRiders generally share a room on tour, but Bouchard’s teammate Mikael Cherel has again tested negative like all the rest of the team.<\/p>\n
AG2R told AFP Saturday “the entire team returned negative tests on Thursday, we have been exemplary in our testing.<\/p>\n
“We had riders pull out of the Tour de Suisse at the end, but cycling as a whole has been exemplary in going through the protocols.”<\/p>\n
Tour director Thierry Gouvenou said organisers were ready for such an eventuality.<\/p>\n
“We saw the figures (of infections) rising throughout France and we were put on red alert during the Tour de Suisse when 40 riders had to pull out,” he said.<\/p>\n
Half a dozen riders had to be replaced prior to the start of the Tour de France due to testing positive for Covid.<\/p>\n
Backroom members of the teams competing have had to leave due to testing positive with Quick-Step on their third sporting director since it began in Copenhagen last week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dole, France, July 9 (AFP\/APP): French rider Geoffrey Bouchard of the AG2R team has withdrawn from the Tour de France after testing positive for Covid-19 ahead of Saturday’s 8th stage between Dole and Lausanne. The 30-year-old Tour debutant is the first cyclist to pull out […]<\/p>\n
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