Tom Pidcock of Britain is not participating in the Tour de France due to COVID-19.
The 24-year-old will not begin Saturday’s stage 14, having just missed out on a second Tour stage victory when he finished second on stage nine.
On July 29 and August 3, respectively, Pidcock will defend his Olympic mountain bike championship and compete in the road event.
“A disappointed Tom Pidcock will not line up for stage 14 of the Tour de France today,” said a statement from his Ineos Grenadiers squad.
“Tom is experiencing symptoms of Covid-19 and under advice from our medical team will now return home to recover.”
After lead-out rider Michael Morkov and race leader Tadej Pogacar’s teammate Juan Ayuso, Pidocck is the third cyclist to pull out of this year’s Tour due to Covid.
Teams are wary of the “big four” – analysis
Several notable names have since dropped out of the Covid contest. Juan Ayuso, Pogacar’s domestique, Michael Morkov, Mark Cavendish’s best lead-out guy, and Pidcock.
With no apparent medical reason, Fred Wright of the United Kingdom and Pello Bilbao of Spain left Bahrain-Victorious; yet, the team has initiated Covid regimens.
Some have gone sick as well. Given that he received Covid 10 days prior to the event, the yellow jersey holder may be fine. The final two members of the “big four,” Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard, will be the center of attention.
Teams will be wary of Evenepoel and Vingegaard because they had to withdraw from last year’s Giro d’Italia with Covid and had major lung ailments in April.