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Without speaking, without touching, without kissing. In the Tour of the masked men, the one with the isolation bubble, nothing is what it seems. A break with everything previously known. A strange stage started in Nice, if in previous editions the test began with a timed test, today the curtain was raised with a 156-kilometer online day for the shining of Alexander Kristoff, the Norwegian UAE Emirates sprinter. The first yellow jersey of the Coronavirus Tour.

The veteran rider (33 years old) imposed his speed tip on Giacomo Nizzolo (NTT Pro Cycling), the fittest sprinter until the start of the Tour, with victories in Paris Nice, in the Italian road championship and in the European on the road, Elia Viviani (Cofidis), Sam Bennet (Deceuninck), Peter Sagan (Bora) and Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal).

A rainy day that began near the Promenade des Anglais in Nice before a small number of spectators and where the Swiss Michael Schar (CCC) and the French Fabien Grellier (Total Direct Energie) and Cyril Gautier (BB Hotels Vital Concept) tried to surprise the platoon with an attack from afar. His hike through the rugged area around Nice ended 60 kilometers from the finish. A nervous day, with constant falls due to a very slippery asphalt, with the Russian Pavel Sivakov ( Egan Bernal's gregarious at Ineos), the French Thibaut Pinot , Julian Alaphilipppe and Marc Soler as illustrious victims. Much stress in the group, with permanent setbacks, until the bosses agreed to an armistice 55 kilometers from the arrival due to the dangerousness of the route. There was no point risking your skin on Opening Day, they thought. A conservative pact. A stage blocked to avoid risks, a brake on the show up to eight kilometers from the finish, already with a dry firm, where the sprinters' pitchers accelerated the pace for Kristoff to shine.

Controversial premiere, with an annoying uncertainty stuck to the bones. Before the start, the Tour organization clarified that it will exclude the teams in which two positive cases of Covid-19 are confirmed, including technicians and assistants, and not only in runners. The director of the test, Christian Prudhomme , assured that the measure has been adopted in line with the French health authorities, which are the ones that establish the health protection framework against the pandemic. The French government has imposed a more drastic measure. Each of the 22 squads has a staff of 30 people on the Tour, in total 700 individuals will be monitored.

A measure that runners do not like. The International Cycling Union claims that the positives will have to be confirmed with a second test to be taken into account, but the organizers assured that they will do so whenever possible within the time frame. The Tour ensures that it has a mobile laboratory to carry out 50 daily tests and 350 on rest days.

At the start, the French Minister of Education for Sports, Jean-Michel Blanquer , considered "very weak" the hypothesis of a suspension of the test before its end. "This kind of thing can happen, but I think it will not happen because there really is an extraordinary job done by the Tour organizers." Many unknowns for a race that balances on the wire.

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