Sassenage (France) (AFP)
Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme will resume his post on Tuesday morning, after a one-week hiatus due to a positive test for the detection of Covid-19, we learned from the organization on Monday evening.
Christian Prudhomme, absent since last Tuesday from the Tour, underwent a new test which turned out to be negative before returning to the event.
The Tour director was the most noticed positive case, albeit asymptomatic, during the wave of tests in Charente-Maritime during the Tour's first day of rest.
Another wave of tests, the last one scheduled before the end of the Tour (September 20), was carried out on the occasion of the second day of rest, Monday, in the department of Isère.
Its results must be known before the start of the 16th stage, Tuesday in the middle of the day at La Tour-du-Pin (Isère).
All the members of the "bubble race", that is to say about thirty people per team, underwent this new detection test.
According to the health protocol validated by the French authorities, a team risks exclusion if it presents two positive cases in its group.
Although not part of the "race bubble", the acting director of the Tour, François Lemarchand, also underwent the detection test, which gave a negative result.
After the announcement of his momentary positivity, Christian Prudhomme explained that he had been in contact with several populations, elected officials, partners, journalists.
"The riders are monk-soldiers, this is not my case," said the director of the Tour, with many protocol and media obligations.
Prime Minister Jean Castex, who had come to the Tour two days earlier, isolated himself for seven days.
The two screening tests he underwent, Tuesday and Saturday, were negative.
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