The UCI has moved to update its Covid-19 precautionary measures for the Tour de France, just days ahead of the race starting in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Mandatory pre-race testing for events longer than seven days is back. However, the major change is that teams will no longer be withdrawn from an event if they record two or more positive cases within seven days.
That should prevent the full team withdrawals witnessed on the recent Tour de Suisse and certainly means teams cannot be forced out of the race. The relaxation of that measure also comes at a time when riders who have contracted the virus appear to be recovering more quickly and returning to racing immediately.
The measures now in place for the Tour, Giro d'Italia Donne and Tour de France Femmes recognise that Covid-19 is on the rise again in European but also reflect the fact the virus is doing less damage to public health.
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In short, the new measures increase efforts to control the virus and prevent it getting in a peloton on the upcoming events. But they also relax the impact on teams who record positive tests.
A health protocol has long been in place for pro cycling, drawn up a steering group under the responsibility of the UCI medical director, Professor Xavier Bigard, along with representatives of riders, teams, team doctors and organisers. And it is this protocol which has now been changed for the upcoming major stage races.
The UCI has introduced the following mandatory measures:
- Two days before the start of the race, presentation of at least one negative antigen test for all members of the teams - riders and staff.
- On the rest days of the event - with the exception of any transfer days - a Covid-19 antigen test for all team members - riders and staff - as well as for commissaires, UCI technical delegates and anti- personal doping control.
- The UCI has said that during the five days before the Tour "daily antigen tests for all team members" must be conducted "in order to verify nobody is carrying the virus, which is essential for the constitution of the team bubble and the peloton bubble".
Riders who test positive for the virus under a PCR - conducted after a positive antigen test - "shall be excluded from the event" during a stage.
However, the UCI medical director and Covid-19 doctor on a race also have the power to grant exemptions to this rule if it can be determined the "rider or staff member is not contagious and not likely to infect third persons".
