Four teams at the Tour de France face a nervous week after each learning on Tuesday that a staff member had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, as one more positive within a week would see the whole team excluded from the race.
All 22 teams set off on the 10th stage after the riders themselves tested negative, with deputy race director Francois Lemarchand waving the flag for racing to commence in place of his boss Christian Prudhomme - who it emerged had also tested positive.
French health authorities and organisers Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) had said that should two members of a team, riders or staff, test positive for the novel coronavirus, the whole outfit would be excluded from the race.
The International Cycling Union (UCI) and the organisers said in a joint statement that one staff member each from French outfits Cofidis and AG2R-La Mondiale, Britain's Team Ineos and Australia's Mitchelton-Scott had contracted the virus.
"One of our staffers tested positive, they were tested the day before yesterday (Sunday), and we took all the necessary measures immediately," said AG2R-La Mondiale team manager Vincent Lavenu.
"The person went home. They're a very cautious person and they were hit by bad luck."
A fourth round of testing for all teams is scheduled to take place in the next rest day in Isere on Sept. 14.
The organisers said race director Prudhomme would leave the race for a week.
Another concern was that French Prime Minister Jean Castex rode in the Tour director's car for part of Saturday's stage.
Castex's office said he would be tested for the virus.
All team members, riders and staff had until 9 pm AEST Monday, the Tour's first rest day, to take a test in the mobile laboratory provided by organisers.
Four staff members of the Lotto Soudal team left the Tour two days before the start after two of them returned positive tests for COVID-19.
Riders had previously expressed concerns that spectators were not being cautious enough, with some of them running alongside the peloton while not wearing masks.
Christian Prudhomme, General Director of the Tour de France, arrives for the start of the third stage of the Tour de France cycling race. Source: EPA
This prompted the professional riders' association (CPA) to issue a statement asking all fans to wear masks.
Slovenian Primoz Roglic is the overall leader of the race ahead of defending champion Egan Bernal of Colombia heading into the 10th stage, a pan-flat run from Ile d'Oleron Le Chateau-d'Oleron to Ile de Re Saint-Martin-de-Re.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex followed the route of the Tour de France on Saturday and spent time in a car following the race with tour director Christian Prudhomme.
Asked by Reuters about the contact, a representative of the prime minister's office said: "They were both wearing masks and respecting social distancing. The prime minister is to undergo a new test, just in case."
A Reuters photographer following the Tour de France said that Castex and Prudhomme spent several hours in each other's company during Saturday's stage of the race, in the Pyrenees mountain range.
France has recorded nearly 31,000 deaths from the virus since the pandemic began.
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