Giro d’Italia, Covid continues to run: two more defections. “But there won’t be a bubble”
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In 2020 the Tour of Italy he moved in the mists of October to avoid the first lockdown. In 2021 and 2022, many riders had to raise the white flag during the three weeks. Covid has hit cycling and its races hard, but the one that starts on Saturday from Fossacesia Marina will be the first post-pandemic Giro. It will be, or perhaps we should say “should be”. The defections continue at a pace that is starting to become not too reassuring. So far, it is above all the one who pays the price Jumbo-Visma by Primoz Roglic, who this morning had to register the defection of Jos Van Emdenpositive for Covid like his companions Gesink And ditchpreviously deleted. Instead of Van Emden, the gialloneri have called up the Dutchman Sam Oomen, in turn affected by the virus in the days following the Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Even in the Bahrain Victorious house there is a last-minute forfeit, that of the Swiss Gino Mäder. Covid, also in this case: in place of him the historic Japanese follow-on Yukiya Arashiro, 38 years old, the fourth oldest at the start after Pozzovivo, Leon Sanchez and Gavazzi. At the Trek-Segafredo house, the painful renunciation of Giulio Ciccone had arrived at the beginning of the week, who will have to watch the Giro on TV which starts on his home roads.
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The Trek doctor: “No prescriptions, the teams decide”
But wasn’t Covid over? “We are witnessing a sudden growth” explains the team doctor Trek-Segafredo, Nino Daniele, “difficult to explain. In the winter the virus was confused with the flu. Now it is growing again, obviously at lower levels than in the previous three springs and with much less important effects”. The Giro, as well as all the other cycling races, however, have abandoned the concept of “bubble”. The use of precautions is completely individual and personal and you no longer need the mandatory pre-race negative swabs to be there. Potentially, a positive runner, in agreement with his team doctor, could take the start. “We have not received any particular prescriptions” continues Daniele, “the organization will no longer test the riders during the rest days, as has been the case since 2020. The team doctor decides, as happened in the past for simple ailments. In recent years, cycling has perhaps been the most rigorous sport, to the point of even getting some irony due to the extremely strict manners. The UCI reserves the right to tighten the measures in cases of extreme necessity. He will hardly be able to do it now, with the Giro in progress. But in the health regulation this possibility, albeit theoretical, exists. Cycling, by its nature, is a sport that lends itself to the spread of any virus: the riders are always in close contact and exchange bodily humors such as sweat, saliva, breath”.
Ciccone meanwhile he turned negative on Wednesday evening, three days before the start. “He, rules in hand, would have been able to be in the race, but he missed a week of training and the conditions necessary to be a protagonist in the Giro. His season moves forward, the new focus will be on the Tour. The disappointment remains, he would have raced in his land, but life goes on ”.
Evenepoel: “Journalists to talk to me wear a mask”
He also spoke at the press conference on the concept of “responsibility”. Remco Evenepoel. The world champion commented on the last-minute defections as follows: “Covid is still present, we have to be very careful. Wearing a mask, washing your hands and avoiding unnecessary contact will become important over the next three weeks. So, if journalists want to see me on Saturday they will have to wear a mask.”
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