The Bora-Hansgrohe (open in new tab) team announced today that it is withdrawing from the World Tour race in Brittany, the Brittany Classic (open in new tab).

"One of the team's riders received a positive result in a three-day test after a negative result in a six-day test. As a result, Bora Hansgrohe withdrew the entire team from the race. All necessary measures to trace the contact person were immediately initiated," the German team said.

"We received a positive result this morning and took immediate action. The team is unable to participate in the race," said team doctor Jan-Niklas Droste. [All team members in direct contact with the rider will be quarantined according to official regulations. The affected rider is asymptomatic and shows no signs of illness."

The team did not reveal the names of the riders, but Cesare Benedetti, Marcus Burghardt, Jempie Dricker, Patrick Gamper, Oscar Gatt, Jay McCarthy, and Ide Schelling of the French one-day classic Beulah Hansgrohe was selected as a member of the team.

None of them were selected for the Tour de France.

As part of the UCI's medical protocol, athletes and team staff in the so-called protected team bubble must undergo regular COVID-19 testing to try to detect any cases.

The protocol states that the first test must be performed six days before the race and the second test must be performed 72 hours before the race.

Theoretically, an athlete would only be allowed to participate in a race if the results of two PCR swab tests are confirmed negative. However, Beulah Hansgrohe claimed that she received the positive COVID-19 result on Tuesday morning, a few hours before the start of the race, and after the athlete in question had moved on to the race and joined his teammates.

Beulah Hansgrohe did not explain what close contact the rider had with his teammate, but pulled all riders from the race and began the process of tracking down the contactor.

All Bora-Hansgrohe riders and staff who had close contact with this rider must be isolated and must respect French regulations regarding COVID-19 incidents.