When you make it up as you go along, you get to move the goalposts.
The two strike rule in the Tour de France has been modified. It seems there is a time period defined from a rest day (Monday) through Sunday where two COVID -19 positives in your team bubble will get the team removed from the Tour. The nominal plan though is to test on the two rest days, so that’s really only two tests on two days where two people need to test positive. That’s a lot of twos in that sentence. If they test midweek, and if a total of two people test positive for that period then the team is out. The Tour has taken a Trumpian approach – if you don’t test then no one will test positive. I suspect the only reason they will test midweek is if someone is symptomatic.
I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about this. On one hand, I think holding the tour is crazy. So much logistics, even on a reduced “show.” There’s a lot of opportunity for spreading if the virus finds the right person. However, the teams are doing their best to manage their bubble so is the infection risk that high? Or am I just feeling lenient because I’m craving some entertainment?
I’ll keep watching and hoping that they make it to Paris safely.
Fantasy Game
I had Thomas De Gendt today as my winner, assuming the winner would come from a breakaway. He’s usually in the breakaways, but alas not today. While the winner did come from a breakaway, it was Marc Hirshi who won and everyone seemed very happy. He was so close to a previous breakaway victory and really put in a big effort to win today.
With today’s scoring, I’ve moved all the way to 52,049th.