Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep) reclaimed the race lead on stage 9 with his time trial victory but isn't going to get to line up in the maglia rosa when racing resumes after the rest day, as the news came through on Sunday night that the Belgian would leave the race after testing positive to COVID-19.
Removing Evenepoel from the General Classification tally makes it the tightest of competitions at the top of the order. Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), who had been just 45 seconds off the race lead after finishing one second behind Evenepoel in the time trial, now moves into the virtual top spot. He is just two seconds ahead of Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) while Thomas' teammate, Tao Geoghegan Hart, is just a further three seconds back from the Jumbo-Visma rider and five seconds off the lead in the overall standings, with Evenepoel removed.
The COVID-19 announcement came just hours after the Belgian seemed to have turned the race fortunes back in his favour. After having shown weakness on stage 8, where he conceded 14 seconds to Roglič, Evenepoel swept through the 35km stage with the fastest time at each intermediate time check and finished the first week of racing as clear leader in the hunt for overall victory given the considerable gap to all his rivals.
