The Tour de France will again enforce a COVID-19 protocol in this year's race, with positive cases at the recent Giro d’Italia highlighting concerns that even while the pandemic is officially over, the virus can still have a major influence on races.
On May 5th 2023 the World Health Organisation declared that the COVID-19 pandemic was no longer a global health emergency. However, in the 2023 Giro d’Italia a spate of cases in the first half of the race, notably causing overall leader Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) to quit the race, heightened fears of the virus' ability to affect professional cycling.
In 2022, 16 riders abandoned the Tour after catching COVID-19 and five quit the race before it started for the same reason. There were 135 finishers last year, the lowest total since 2000.
