The Ineos Grenadiers (open in new tab) team has started a new chapter in the history of the Tour de France (open in new tab) with Egan Bernal (open in new tab) appointed as the sole team leader and without Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas. Even if the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic means that the race may not last three weeks and reach Paris.

"We are here to win the Tour de France," Brailsford said during a video press conference at Ineos Grenadiers on Friday.

"We've won many times before and we've always been ambitious. That hasn't changed at all. We are here with ambition, energy and excitement. We're looking forward to the race starting."

The death of director Nicholas Portal in the spring was a major blow to the Ineos Grenadiers. Gabriele Rasch will take over that role, but Brailsford expects the entire team to use the experience of winning the Tour de France to make up for the loss of Portal's unique leadership from Team Car.

"We have won this race more than anyone else," he noted, giving his main rival, Jumbo Visma, a run for his money.

"We have riders on our team who have won more Grand Tours than any other team. We are going to work with a collective approach and share our knowledge with each other for the benefit of the team."

When announcing Ineos Grenadier's lineup for the Tour de France, Brailsford viewed the absence of Froome and Thomas as a positive, with the Welshman targeting the Giro d'Italia and Froome the Vuelta a España in 2021 after He announced that he would be moving to the start-up country of Israel.

He had little inclination to look back on their previous Tour de France successes.

"I don't think we will look back. We had a lot of success over the years, we learned a lot together, we had great experiences together.

"We have to focus on the team we have here. We have a young team mixed with experienced support riders. It's an exciting blend. It's been a great journey and I'm going to focus on Geriant and Chris for the rest of the season, but right now everything is focused here.

Richard Karapas has been called up to the Tour de France team to support Bernal. He won the 2019 Giro d'Italia, but Brailsford made it clear that Bernal will be the team leader for the next three weeks.21]

"Egan won last year and is a great rider.

"He has great talent and is mature beyond his years, so we will start the race with Egan as the complete team leader and will fully support him.

The fear of COVID-19 cases in the Tour de France and the risk of the race causing the spread of the virus among the French public hangs over the race like the sword of Damocles.

The number of new COVID-19 cases per day in France exceeded 5,000 on Thursday, the Alpes-Maritimes department was designated a red zone on Thursday, and the virus is actively spreading.

Spectators will be limited to just a few hundred at Thursday's team presentations, and restrictions will be imposed at the start and finish of stages and in the mountains during the race. Fans along the roadside will be required to wear face masks, and teams will have to follow strict medical protocols, including requiring riders to sleep in single rooms and wear masks on the podium.

There are doubts whether the race can continue, but Brailsford believes it should.

"Who knows if we will make it to Paris?" he said. But I'm going to race it as if it's a complete three-week Tour." When things change, they change

"I think there is a discussion, not just about the Tour de France, but more broadly about getting back to work, back to school, back to life as normal as possible. I think sports have an important role to play in that. [There are many measures that, if people take precautions and follow protocols, can minimize the risk and retire significantly.

"I think ASO deserves credit. If it is harmful or too risky for riders, teams, and the public, then people need to accept it.

"[It is] important for the sport [that the race takes place], it is important for society, and it is important in general.

There have been a number of recent cases of false positives that have raised concerns.

A special study conducted by Laura Weislo (open in new tab) for Cyclingnews highlights how false positives can occur and why follow-up testing is essential to eliminate them.

Under UCI and Tour de France regulations, riders and team staff must leave the race if they test positive, even if they are leading candidates or wearing the leader's yellow jersey.

Riders and team staff were tested for COVID-19 six days and three days before the start of the Tour de France. On Thursday, four members of the Lotto-Soudal team were sent home after the team mechanic and Soinier tested "non-negative."

Because Grand Tour racing is always in flux, there is little time for secondary testing to confirm cases and rule out false positives.

Brailsford is very aware of and concerned about the impact.

"False positives are a problem and a challenge for all of us. But if you take a step back and look at the tests that are being done and the rate at which you get false positives and false negatives, it is inevitable that it will happen," he said.

"Our challenge is the time scale. If we want to act quickly, we don't have time to double check or wait 24-48 hours for another test to confirm a false positive.

We have to act quickly. That is not the best scenario, but it is realistic. We should address it in the best way possible and see if there is a way to expedite a secondary test to see if it is a false positive. We are not there yet, but I am confident we will be there fairly soon."