Cycling-Four Lotto-Soudal team members sent home from Tour after positive coronavirus tests

Four staff members of the Lotto-Soudal team were sent away from the Tour de France after two of them tested positive for coronavirus, the Belgian team said on Thursday. "After a PCR test, specific to SARS-Cov-2, revealed two non-negative cases, Team Lotto-Soudal decided to send home two staff people, as well as their room mates.

Four staff members of the Lotto-Soudal team were sent away from the Tour de France after two of them tested positive for coronavirus, the Belgian team said on Thursday. "After a PCR test, specific to SARS-Cov-2, revealed two non-negative cases, Team Lotto-Soudal decided to send home two staff people, as well as their room mates. Safety remains priority number one," Lotto-Soudal said in a statement.

Organisers had said that should two members of a team test positive for coronavirus, the outfit would be excluded from the race, but sources told Reuters that the rule was "expected to be relaxed". Organisers said the team were not excluded from the Tour, which starts on Saturday.

Team staff and riders are tested six and three days prior to the start of the three-week long race.