The Bora-Hansgrohe team have announced they have withdrawn from today’s Bretagne Classic WorldTour race in Brittany after one of their riders tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.
“One of the team’s riders received a positive result from the 3-day test after a negative 6-day test. As a result, Bora-Hansgrohe has withdrawn the entire team from the race. All necessary measures for contact tracing have been initiated immediately,” the German team said.
"We received the positive result this morning and reacted immediately. The team cannot participate in the race,” team doctor Jan-Niklas Droeste said.
“All team members who have been in direct contact with the rider will go into self-isolation according to official regulations. The affected rider is asymptomatic and displays no signs of illness.”
The team did not reveal the name of the rider but Cesare Benedetti, Marcus Burghardt, Jempy Dricker, Patrick Gamper, Oscar Gatto, Jay McCarthy and Ide Schelling were named in the Bora-Hansgrohe squad for the French one-day Classic.
None of the riders have been selected to ride the Tour de France.
As part of the UCI's medical protocol, riders and team staff in the so-called protective team bubble have to undergo regular COVID-19 tests to try to catch any cases.
The protocol states that a first test must be carried out six days before a race, with a second test carried out no more than 72 hours before a race.
In theory, riders’ participation in a race can only be authorized if the results of the two PCR swab tests are confirmed as negative. However Bora-Hansgrohe claimed they only received the results of the COVID-19 positive on Tuesday morning, a few hours before the start and after the rider in question had apparently travelled to the race and joined up with his teammates.
Bora-Hansgrohe did not explain what close contact the rider had with his teammates but pulled all the riders from the race and began the process of contact tracing.
All the Bora-Hansgrohe riders and staff who have been in close contact with the rider will go into self-isolation and will have to respect French regulations regarding COVID-19 cases.
