Plouay (France) (AFP)
The Bora team did not start the Bretagne Classic on Tuesday in Plouay (western France) because one of its riders had tested positive for the coronavirus before a second test led to a contrary conclusion.
"It is reasonable to conclude that this was a false positive test result," said the German cycling team at the end of the day.
According to the explanations of Bora, of which none of the riders present on site is engaged in the next Tour de France, the riders entered have all tested negative six days before the race. One of them then received, Tuesday morning, the positive result of his test carried out three days before departure.
"All the members of the team who have been in direct contact with the runner will isolate themselves in accordance with official instructions", then declared after the first announcement Jan-Niklas Droste, medical officer, specifying that the affected runner did not present symptoms.
“The runner was retested during the day and (as was the case with his 6 day test) came back negative. All other runners and staff were also immediately retested, and all results were negative ", communicated at the end of the day the German team.
Its boss Ralph Denk underlined the risk of error in the anti-Covid strategy put in place by the International Cycling Union (UCI).
"We know that PCR tests have a certain error rate and therefore produce false positives. This would not pose a problem in itself, if there was the possibility of verifying the results immediately in the case of a positive result", did he declare.
"In the UCI's current control strategy, this verification is not present", he added. "You may not be allowed to compete due to a false conclusion. (...) Adjustments must be made immediately. We need certainty about the testing procedures and strategy."
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