Geraint Thomas’s continued participation within the 2024 Tour de France is unsure, with the Welshman revealing that he has delicate signs of Covid.
The Ineos Grenadiers rider completed 31 minutes behind stage 14 winner Tadej Pogačar on Pla d’Adet, simply hours after his teammate Tom Pidcock was despatched house from the race for additionally displaying signs of Covid.
Thomas, who gained the yellow jersey in 2018, advised ITV Sport at the beginning of the day that “I am additionally not nice. I’ve not examined constructive [for Covid], simply obtained delicate signs.
“The physician is monitoring me intently and so they have their protocol on the subject of respiratory infections. In the intervening time I’ve obtained a little bit of a headache and a runny nostril and we’ll see the way it goes.
“In another stroll of life I might be completely tremendous however attempting to race the Tour is barely totally different.”
Covid exists within the Tour peloton, with UAE Group Emirates’s Juan Ayuso leaving the race halfway on stage 13 after contracting the pandemic virus. A number of groups have now launched precautionary measures, together with using masks.
Zak Dempster, Ineos’s lead sports activities director on the race, stated after stage 14 that “sadly we’re again to the not-new previous regular and clearly with G it relies upon how the state of affairs evolves. If it will progress to the purpose that he can be in peril then it would not make sense to begin.
“You see in our determination making we’re defending the riders if we really feel it is not secure for them to take action, and we’ll proceed to try this now and into the long run.”
Dempster had beforehand stated of Pidcock that well being got here earlier than any sporting curiosity for the squad.
“He is been a bit below the climate for the previous few days,” he stated. “It is a disgrace. The rider’s well being comes first.
“It is not simply any bike race. He was second on a stage, however he nonetheless had excessive hopes of successful levels and being a key participant. Heading house as we speak is an actual disgrace and you have to really feel for the man.
Thomas sits thirty third on GC, however his Ineos teammate Carlos Rodríguez is in fifth. The Spaniard, nonetheless, is sort of 4 minutes shy of a podium spot. The British crew are but to win a stage of the race.
