The director of the Tour de France must temporarily depart from the race. However, all the cyclists tested are negative.
The director of the Tour de France Christian Prudhomme underwent a test, which turned out to be positive for Covid-19 and must deviate from the tour for a week, we learned Tuesday 8th September 2020 from the organization of the race.
On the other hand, all the cyclists are negative and can continue the race, of which the 10th stage starts at the beginning of the afternoon from the island of Oléron (Charente-Maritime).
The director of the Tour, who will be replaced on the event by François Lemarchand, will resume his place after the second day of rest, next Monday, in Isère.
Le directeur du Tour de France Christian Prudhomme a subi un test, qui s’est révélé positif au Covid-19 et il doit s’écarter de l’épreuve pendant une semaine, a-t-on appris auprès de l’organisation de la course #AFP pic.twitter.com/ZgMBKEwCxL
— Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) September 8, 2020
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Several equally positive management members
French Prime Minister Jean Castex took his place on Saturday in the Tour management car, alongside Christian Prudhomme, to follow the 8th stage.
“I’m leaving the Tour for eight days,” Christian Prudhomme, who is asymptomatic, told AFP. “I will do like any French employee in this kind of case.”
Several members of the team management have also tested positive during examinations carried out on the occasion of the first day of rest in Charente-Maritime. But no training has presented more than one positive case, which does not lead to any collective exclusion.
According to the health protocol decided by the authorities before the start of the Tour de France, on August 29th in Nice, positive people must leave the event. A team is excluded if it presents two cases in its workforce of around thirty people.
“The cyclists live like monk-soldiers, which is not my case,” said the director of the Tour, who obviously did not come to the starting village of the Tour on the island of Oléron.
By virtue of his functions, Christian Prudhomme multiplies the meetings with the guests or the elected officials, as well as the protocol obligations.
“It is for this reason that I do not belong to the ‘racing bubble’ and have no contact with the cyclists,” he explained.
The Tour director said he had been tested three times before the start, “on August 6th, 20th and 27th,” each time with a negative result. “From the information given to me, it just happened,” he added.
“I’m going to watch the Tour on television, which hasn’t happened to me for fifteen years,” commented Christian Prudhomme, alone at the helm of the biggest race in the world since 2007.
