Two days before the Tour de France Grande Parle in Copenhagen, the team of reigning champion Taddei Pogachar was forced to make a late lineup change after Matteo Trentin tested positive for COVID-19 in the final pre-race tests. The team was forced to make a late lineup change after Matteo Trentin tested positive for COVID-19 in the final test before the race.

According to a statement released by his UAE team, Emirates, the Italian, who was scheduled to start his seventh Tour de France this year, is "feeling well and not showing any symptoms.

In his place, the team has decided to call up Swiss rider Marc Hirschi, who won a stage win and the Combat Award in 2020; the 23-year-old recently contracted COVID-19 at the Tour de Suisse, where he and his UAE teammates were in the race when the virus caused massive They were included on the retired list.

Hirschi has not raced since then and did not participate in last weekend's Swiss national championship road race.

He joined the team last season from Team DSM and returned to racing in the spring after overcoming off-season hip surgery; in 2022 he has two wins at the Per Sempre Alfredo and GP Cantons Aargau and 10 other top-10 finishes.

Hirschi will team up with Pogachar, Brandon McNulty, Marc Soler, Rafau Mayka, Mikkel Bjarg, George Bennett, and Vegard Stake Rengen in the Tour as the team looks for its third win.

Meanwhile, Trentin joins a list of riders who were ruled out of the Tour just days before the start. On Tuesday, Quick-Step Alphavinil domestique Tim Declercq was replaced by Florian Senechal due to a positive test for COVID-19 by the Belgian, while Edvald Boasson Hagen has reportedly fallen ill with a non-COVID-related illness He was called up by Total Energies to replace Cristian Rodriguez.