Canadian climber Mike Woods (Israel Premier Tech) became the 17th rider in the 2022 Tour de France to test positive for COVID-19 and retire early from the race.

Woods' teammates, four-time overall winner Chris Froome and stage 5 winner Simon Clark, have already withdrawn from the race for the same reason.

The news was tweeted by Woods' team on Sunday morning." Everyone is looking forward to the final stage in Paris today, but unfortunately Michael Woods will not be able to start due to a positive Covid test."

Woods, who crashed in the first week but then recovered strongly in the Pyrenees and helped his compatriot and teammate Hugo Uhl win the Foix, told Cycling News that he hopes to compete in the Vuelta a España in August.

Woods also finished third on this stage, fighting with Valentin Maduas (Groupama-FDJ) for the bottom step of the podium. Valentin Maduas beat Woods in a sprint win after Woolf had won stage 16 solo by 1:10 over the pair. Woods, in his eighth Grand Tour, was in 36th place overall at the DNS of stage 21.

This was his second Tour abandonment in two years, having left the race early to recover from a crash in 2021 before the Tokyo Olympics. His teammate Clark withdrew from the Tour on stage 15 after testing positive for COVID-19, and Froome signed on at the start of stage 18 in Lourdes, but tested positive shortly thereafter and abandoned the race before the final mountain stage to Autacam.

The team will head to Paris with four riders after losing Jakob Fuglsang, who broke a rib on stage 15.