Pidcock’s Tour debut at risk after Covid outbreak
With just two weeks to the start of this year’s Tour de France in Copenhagen, professional cycling is once again reeling from an outbreak of Covid-19. British squad Ineos Grenadiers
have been directly affected, with Tom Pidcock forced to pull out of the Tour de Suisse yesterday.
Pidcock’s positive came just 24 hours after Adam Yates, earmarked to be one of the Ineos Grenadiers coleaders at this year’s Tour de France, alongside Colombian Dani Martinez, also succumbed to the virus.
In total, 29 riders did not start yesterday’s sixth stage of the Swiss race, including race leader Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-hansgrohe). That was after 16 riders pulled out on Thursday, with some teams opting to withdraw en masse with the Tour de France so close.
UAE Team Emirates, the team of Tour favourite Tadej Pogacar, Alpecin-fenix and Bahrain-victorious all quit the race in Switzerland following positive cases in their teams, while EF Education-easypost have so far withdrawn four riders, including Rigoberto Uran and Briton Hugh Carthy.
Despite the mounting cases, race organisers took the decision to continue. Welshman Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) finished safely in the group of favourites on stage six to retain his second place overall, one second behind Danish rider Jakob Fuglsang (Israel-premier Tech). Race director Olivier Senn said he would take things on a dayby-day basis as the race nears its conclusion tomorrow: “We will reassess tomorrow morning and hope we don’t have many more cases. For the moment, we keep going as planned.”
Thomas, the 2018 Tour de France champion, will be sweating. At the age of 36, he will not have many more opportunities to ride it and a positive test now could jeopardise his participation, although the latest strain of Covid appears to be relatively mild.
Pidcock would be taking on the Tour for the first time. The 22 yearold has won Olympic mountain bike gold and the world cyclocross title in the last 12 months. He would likely be given the freedom to target stage wins.