EHe Covid-19 continues to hit the Tour de France 2022. Despite the fact that the rest day of the ‘Grande Boucle’ had passed without any positive, the disease shakes the top favorite and champion of the last two editions, Tadej Pogacar. One of his best domestiques, George Bennett, is out of the race as confirmed by his team, the UAE-Team Emirates.
Bennett becomes the sixth man to drop out of the race due to Covid. Vegard joins Stake Laengen, also a partner of leader Tadej Pogacar in the UAE-Team Emirates, Geoffrey Bouchard, from AG2R-Citron, Luke Durbridge, from BikeExchange and Guillaume Martin, leader of Cofidis and low more prominent. In total, it is the thirteenth withdrawal from the Tour: 163 of the 176 cyclists who left Denmark are still in action.
Bennett’s case is particularly prominent. The New Zealand cyclist is one of the strongest men on the road and his ability to select the group is not in doubt. Bennett is thus left out, Pogacar loses another gregarious and what is more important: panic will spread in the Emirate structure.
more when Rafal Majka, the main gregarious of Pogacar in the high mountain stages, also tests positive for Covid, although in his case he is not out as he presents viral load short. Another victim of the internal ‘tests’ of the UAE-Team Emirates.
Tambin Luke Durbridge
In addition to the Bennett case, there is one more casualty on the starting line of the second week of the gala round. Luke Durbridge, Australian BikeExhange cyclist, He tested positive and is out of the race.
The Australian team has confirmed that their symptoms “are very mild” and they lose one of the men who had tried the most during the first days of the Tour. For example, he was among the escapees at the end of The Planche des Belles Filles, who came to dream of overthrowing the tyranny of the platoon with Lennard Kmna until Pogacar and Vingegaard came into action.
