Britain’s Tom Pidcock is out of the Tour de France after testing positive for Covid-19.

The 24-year-old, who narrowly missed out on a second Tour stage win when he finished second on stage nine, did not start Saturday’s stage 14.

Pidcock is set to defend his Olympic mountain bike title on 29 July and also compete in the road race on 3 August.

His Ineos Grenadiers team said: “A disappointed Tom Pidcock will not line up for stage 14 of the Tour de France today.

“Tom is experiencing symptoms of Covid-19 and under advice from our medical team will now return home to recover.”

Pidcock is the third rider to withdraw from this year’s Tour because of Covid after Juan Ayuso, team-mate of race leader Tadej Pogacar, and Michael Morkov, Mark Cavendish’s lead-out man.

Pidcock’s team-mate Geraint Thomas said before the start of Saturday’s stage that his fellow Briton was “not great” and added that he had tested positive himself, although the 2018 champion will continue to race for now.

“For a start it’s a big, big shame to lose Tom but he felt bad this morning and it’s between him and the doctor, and that’s what they decided to do,” said Thomas.

“For me, I’m also not great. I’ve tested positive but I’ve just got mild symptoms and the docs are monitoring me closely and they’ve got their protocols when it comes to respiratory conditions.

“At the minute it’s just a bit of a headache and a runny nose, so we’ll just see how it goes.”