The day before, it was the Briton Adam Yates (Ineos) and the entire Jumbo-Visma team who had been forced to give up.
While Aleksander Vlasov, winner of the 5th stage was about to run in the shoes of the leader on Friday, the Russian tested positive for Covid-19.
And he is far from the only one.
After Jumbo-Visma, all of the UAE-Teams, Bahrain-Victorious and Alpecin-Fenix teams were unable to start due to cases in their ranks.
The other teams are not spared.
EF Education-Easypost has recorded four positive runners: Stefan Bisseger, Alberto Bettiol, Hugh Carty and finally the Colombian Rigoberto Uran.
The Bora-Hansgrohe and Israel-Premier Tech teams have two absentees each: Vlasov and Anton Palzer on one side, Sebastian Berwick and Reto Hollenstein (contact case) on the other.
Finally Gianluca Brambilla (Trek Segafredo), Alex Aranburu (Movistar), Louis Vervaeke (Quick-Step), Simone Petilli (Intermarché-Wanty) and Thomas Pidcock (Ineos-Grenadiers) complete the long list of absentees.
The 6th stage of the Tour de Suisse, which started late Friday morning in Locarno, will take the riders to Moosalp.
In the absence of Vlasov, it was the Dane Jakob Fuglsang (Israel-Premier Tech) who took over the leader's yellow jersey.
© 2022 AFP