Remco Evenepoel abandons the Giro d’Italia. The ugly mess of Covid on a bicycle

The Tour of Italy that could have been by Remco Evenepoel, by Remco Evenepoel it will not be. The world champion retired after winning the second time trial and taking back the pink jersey. Two swabs confirmed his positivity to Covid-19. And so goodbye to the race. He has already left for Belgium. An announcement arrived late in the evening that left everyone, organizers and enthusiasts a bit dumbfounded. Nobody expected it. Certain things are never expected, especially after WHO has officially declared the end of the health emergency. The emergency is no longer there, Covid is not, it resists, it is still present, certainly it is no longer as scary as before, but the infections are there. And the teams, all the teams, manage themselves independently. This is how it works in cycling.

The Union Cycliste Internationale’s anti-Covid protocol still formally exists, it was updated in January, it has never been repealed. The shirts are quite large and, in a nutshell, they entrust all the weight of the checks and the management of the positivity to the teams. The rule is this: “During stage races, medical checks aimed at looking for clinical symptoms indicative of COVID-19 are imperative and are the responsibility of the team doctors”. Mandatory, but not mandatory. In short, it goes according to conscience.

And in case of positivity, “within a team (athletes or staff members), confirmed by a COVID-19 test, the decision to isolate the subject and withdraw him from the race will be taken collectively by the doctor of the team concerned, by the race doctor and the UCI medical director, on the basis of the available clinical elements and the results of the COVID test. The conclusions of the medical report will be sent to the UCI, to the president of the commissaires’ panel and to the organizers”.

However, the protocol in the case of Remco Evenepoel was not followed. Also because, it must be said, it is the UCI itself that no longer gives weight to an existing protocol, but only formally. It’s no longer stringent and every race and every team does what it wants.

Giro d’Italia director Mauro Vegni told the Gazzetta that “the organization did not receive prior communication. In this they have sinned, the justification being that they panicked a bit and didn’t have the lucidity to follow a more regular route”. Protocol or no protocol, Soudal-Quick Step decided it was not the time for Remco Evenepoel to continue. Could he wait? See how the situation evolved during the rest day? Sure, but he didn’t. The choice made was to protect the health of the runner. Soudal-Quick Step cannot be blamed. The disappointment of not being able to see what we expected from the start of the Giro, Evenepoel, Roglic, Thomas and Geoghegan Hart do battle uphill, there is, but these are the times and we have to take note of it. However, the doubt remains that the matter could have been handled differently.

Above all, the feeling remains that cycling treats positivity from Covid with a much greater fear than what is now widespread in the rest of the population. And that perhaps, in order not to give way to controversies that lead to conspiracy theories, it would be necessary to take a step back, above all to pay more attention to the occasions in which the group interfaces with those around it. Talking about the bubble in 2023 is out of time and above all unachievable, but to avoid throwing away one of the goals of the season for a positivity maybe a few more foresight was the case to take it. Mauro Vegni has announced that masks will again be mandatory in places shared between runners and insiders.

The certainty is that Geraint Thomas will restart from Scandiano as leader. And that now there are at least seven riders who will fight for the three places on the podium. Between Geraint Thomas, first, and Tao Geoghegan Hart there are five seconds, between the pink jersey and Damiano Caruso, seventh, one minute and twenty-eight. And in the last two weeks there has been a lot of uphill and formidable, starting from Thursday 18 May.

An uncertainty which, however, does not necessarily mean greater entertainment. Both because Remco Evenepoel is an exceptional rider capable of overturning the story of the Giro with one action, and because now the strongest team in the peloton is also that of the pink jersey and this means above all one thing: he won’t have to attack anymore, but he will also be able to think only of controlling the race. And this is a pity.