The Grande Boucle follows its course at the end of the 8th stage in Switzerland this Saturday, won by the Belgian Wout van Aert. Arriving in third position, leader Tadej Pogacar retains his yellow jersey. More than a week after the start of the Tour, the spectacle is there but for the riders and their teams, concern is setting in. Two participants had to forfeit this Saturday, affected by the Covid-19, reports Le Parisien. In front of the riders’ buses, a few minutes from the start, the tension is palpable.
“There are too many people here, we don’t even have a meter distance,” laments Mauro Gianetti. Several voices are beginning to rise in the peloton with the withdrawals of Stake Laengen, in the same team as the yellow jersey, and Frenchman Geoffrey Bouchard. This is why Pascal Chanteur, president of the UNCP riders’ union, officially asked Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), organizer of the Tour, this morning to close the paddocks to guests.
“You have to live with the virus,” said Pascal Chanteur. No team will take the risk of keeping an asymptomatic. Imagine that he infects others. According to the president of the union, there is no solution to avoid contamination within the peloton. “This is a sadly hopeless and totally unsolvable problem. Previously, with gastros and colds, we had no mask and yet full of contaminating people. We still kept the contaminated and we crossed our fingers so that the leader does not fall ill. Today, we are obsessed with the Covid. Looks like it’s the black plague when we’ve always dealt with viruses in a platoon. »
