(Reuters) – All 22 teams will start the 10th stage of the Tour de France after their riders tested negative for COVID-19, organisers told Reuters on Tuesday, adding that four members of staff had returned positive tests.
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 those testing positive were from different teams, meaning all could line up for the stage’s 1130 GMT start.
The organisers also said race director Christian Prudhomme had tested positive.
All team members, riders and staff had until 1100 GMT on Monday, the Tour’s first rest day, to take a test in the mobile laboratory provided by organisers.
Four staff members of the Lotto Soudal team left the Tour two days before the start after two of them returned positive tests for COVID-19.
Slovenian Primoz Roglic is the overall leader of the race ahead of defending champion Egan Bernal of Colombia heading into the 10th stage, a pan-flat run from Ile d’Oleron Le Chateau-d’Oleron to Ile de Re Saint-Martin-de-Re.
France has recorded nearly 31,000 deaths from the virus since the pandemic began, according to a Reuters tally.
(Reporting by Arvind Sriram in Bengaluru and Julien Pretot; Editing by Gareth Jones and Hugh Lawson)
