The second round of Tour de France rest day testing has begun in earnest in Carcassonne, and already two teams of riders are reportedly breathing a sigh of relief with negative results in all rounds.

Het Nieuwsblad (opens in new tab) reports that the entire Intermarché Wanty-Gobert Matério team has tested negative, reports Het Laatste Nieuws (opens in new tab), The remaining six Quick Step Alpha Vinyl players also completed the test without positive results.

Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl, which won the first two stages of the Tour, had to send key staff home after testing positive for COVID-19, but so far that has not been the case for any of the riders. Kasper Asgreen left the race to recover from a knee injury, while Mikhail Morkov spent most of the hot 202.5km stage at the back of the pelton group and failed to cut time on stage 15.

In accordance with the UCI COVID-19 protocol, all riders, staff, and race officials had to undergo rapid antigen testing on Sunday evening or on the rest day in Carcassonne on Monday. No statement has yet been released by the UCI regarding the results of the COVID-19 test in Carcassonne.

The riders were tested last week on the first rest day in Chatel after stage 9, and the UCI announced early in the rest day that all COVID-19 tests were negative. Nevertheless, this did not mean that a small number of riders were withdrawn from the race due to coronavirus. Before the official tests in Carcassonne, eight riders had already retired during the race.

Magnus Kort (EF Education-Easy Post) and Simon Clark (Israel-Premier Tech) left the race after testing positive before stage 15, Warren Barguil (Arkea-Samsic) before stage 13, Luke Darbridge ( Bike Exchange-Jayco) and George Bennett (UAE Team Emirates) left the race before the start of stage 10, and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) before stage 9. Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R Citroen) and Vegard Stake Rengen (UAE Team Emirates) became the first riders to leave this year's race due to COVID-19 when they tested positive after stage 7.

Nevertheless, not all riders who tested positive for COVID-19 were forced to return home, and if PCR tests show low virus levels, riders like Bob Jungels (AG2R Citroen) and Rafal Mayka (UAE Team Emirates) may be allowed to continue in the Tour de France could be allowed to continue.