Ineos Grenadiers has seen its Tour de France plans thrown into trouble as Adam Yates, who was set to target GC on the French Grand Tour, has tested positive for Covid-19. The result was recorded on the Tour de Suisse and now Yates has pulled out of the race.
While the entire Jumbo Visma team also withdrew from the event before the start of today's stage, Ineos Grenadiers has only confirmed Yates's withdrawal. It is also not clear if Jumbo Visma had several cases or just one.
Yates held the yellow jersey in the Tour for four days in 2020 and has also shown some strong form this year. He was 2nd in UAE Tour at the start of the season and also finished 4th in Paris-Nice.
Ineos Grenadiers confirmed in a Tweet that Yates had pulled out of Tour de Suisse prior to today's stage, saying: "In line with team and UCI protocols, Adam Yates has withdrawn from Tour De Suisse this morning after experiencing mild symptoms and returning a positive lateral flow test."
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Yates had been due to co-lead the Ineos Grenadiers team at the Tour with Daniel Martínez. His withdrawal from the Tour - if it comes to that - would likely give his Colombian team mate a clear run at the general classification.
Yates would still, just about, have time to get the virus out of his system, and be declared fit to race by the time the Tour starts in a fortnight. However, the interruption it causes to the next week or more would effectively derail his preparation, even if he did not fall ill. And if he were to develop symptoms, a Tour start seems very unlikely.
Richard Carapaz had been ruled out of the Tour after riding the Giro and placing 2nd overall. He also travelled back to his home in Ecuador after the Italian race and it's unclear if he could be drafted into the Ineos Grenadiers Tour team if Yates is forced to miss the race.
Egan Bernal, who would be the team's natural leader on the Tour, has yet to make a return to competition - or even Europe for training - since his life-threatening crash at the start of the year in Colombia. He has been posting videos of himself on social media making hard efforts again on the bike though no return date to any form of racing has even been mentioned by the team yet.
If Yates's test result is confirmed - and there have been some false positives in the peloton over the last two years - his Tour preparation is ruined even if he is symptom-free. In reality, the development makes it almost certain he would not ride the race, which begins tomorrow two weeks in Copenhagen, assuming the test result is confirmed.
