Heartbreak for Tom Pidcock as positive Covid-19 test likely casts end to Tour de France ambitions

Tom Pidcock has tested positive for Covid-19 and has abandoned the Tour de Suisse. The Briton is the second case in the team after Adam Yates also tested positive, as INEOS Grenadiers' Tour team is being severely hampered.

Whilst Yates will likely recover and head to France as a leader, a plan that has been outlined since the start of the season, Pidcock had been using the Tour de Suisse as the race in which he had to prove his form in order to be at the Tour. He's sprinted to fourth on stage three and fifth on stage four, however he did not have the chance to prove himself in the mountains.

INEOS team for the Tour have largely focused on the Tour de Suisse as a preparation race, but the plan is backfiring and several riders are now at risk. Geraint Thomas remains in the race and will start the sixth stage in second place overall after race leader Aleksandr Vlasov abandoned for the same reason.