After this year’s Giro d’Italia was marred with dropouts due Covid-19 infections, we all wondered how the Tour de France would handle the potential of the virus striking the peloton this summer.
On Wednesday, the UCI announced that riders who test positive for Covid-19 will not be automatically removed from the race.
According to the UCI, due to a combination of a high rate of vaccination and previous infections among the peloton, the risks posed to riders and staff are “currently extremely low.”
Additionally, the organization said that rates of COVID-19 infections in France are currently very low, which informed the group’s decision. Currently, COVID-19 cases are as low as they have been in France since the start of the pandemic and, per statistics from the World Health Organization, appear to be continuing to decline.
This year’s race will not require proof of vaccination, health passes, or negative COVID-19 test results for the racers.
If a rider or staff member does test positive for the virus, the decision to remove them from the race will fall to their team doctor, the Tour de France coronavirus coordinator, and the UCI’s medical director.
In May, we saw the virus hit the peloton hard during the Giro. Cases first trickled in, with a handful of domestiques like Clément Russo, Nicola Conci, and Giovanni Aleotti abandoning the Grand Tour due to infections. Even before the race started, Robert Gesink, Tobias Foss, and Jos van Emden were unable to race due to positive Covid-19 tests. The race also lost stars like Filippo Ganna, Rigoberto Uran, and Aleksandr Vlasov.
It came to a head when then-race leader Remco Evenepoel was forced to abandon the race mere hours after taking the pink jersey in a race that was projected to be his to lose. As with the upcoming Tour, there was no requirement for anyone to test during the Giro and no requirement for riders to leave the race after a positive test.
Still, Evenepoel’s Soudal Quick-Step team made the decision to pull the heavy favorite from the race.
A day later, it was announced that masks would once again be required for anyone coming into contact with the riders.
“We relaxed our attention too soon,” Giro race director Mauro Vegni told Italian sports daily paper La Gazetta dello Sport in May. “We cannot let our guard down. Should we have [reinstituted mask mandates] earlier? Probably yes.”
Eventually, the virus took over a dozen riders out of the race, several of whom were members of the Soudal Quick-Step team, who eventually finished the race with only two riders.
The Tour de France kicks off Saturday, July 1, 2023 with a hilly 113-mile course that starts and ends in Bilbao, Spain, on the country’s northern coast. Like France, Covid-19 infections in Spain are near an all-time low.
Michael Venutolo-Mantovani is a writer and musician based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He loves road and track cycling, likes gravel riding, and can often be found trying to avoid crashing his mountain bike.
