One of Europe’s most iconic celebration, the Tour de France, is in question right after the race’s starting off location, the Alpes-Maritimes, was set on pink notify.

The Guardian’s Jeremy Whittle reviews that tensions bordering the race ramped up even further continue to on Thursday night soon after the Lotto-Soudal crew announced two of their team’s support staff has examined “non-negative” for Covid-19 and had been despatched property from Good. “Safety stays priority range just one,” the statement browse.

“Only globe wars have stopped the Tour de France,” the Tour director, Christian Prudhomme, mentioned in March this 12 months, but the swiftly increasing considerations about the knowledge of going ahead with this year’s race led to a cross-assessment of the primary minister, Jean Castex, by journalists on Thursday.

“We have taken numerous safeguards and overall health protocols and I’d remind you that this is an open-air party,” Castex mentioned. “The areas where the virus spreads and there is transmission have no organisation. The Tour has an organiser.”

Confirming that Good was just one of 19 new locations to be positioned underneath red alert, Castex stated that “the pandemic is regaining ground and now’s the time to intervene”, including: “France need to do every little thing to avert a new lockdown.”

With uncertainty over race gripping the Grand Départ bubble of riders, some teams have hinted they will race working day by working day, even though some others have insisted it will not modify their very long-term methods.

“We don’t have a strategic strategy to be in the lead in case the race stops just after a single and a 50 percent weeks,” Tom Dumoulin, former Giro d’Italia champion, and teammate to Primoz Roglic, mentioned.

On Thursday France claimed its 2nd-highest stage of situations at any time and a new publish-lockdown significant, with 6,111 cases. The best day by day overall of 7,578 was established on 30 March.

You can go through Jeremy’s full report on the Tour down below.