Giro d’Italia may be cancelled after two teams pull out with coronavirus

The Giro d’Italia appears to be on the brink of cancellation after two teams withdrew from the race on Tuesday amid questions over organisers’ Covid protocols.

Mitchelton-Scott, who lost their British leader Simon Yates — one of the big pre-race favourites — to a Covid-19 positive last weekend, had four more staff members test positive in the latest round of testing and took the decision to withdraw their team en masse, citing their “social responsibility”.

As did Jumbo-Visma after another of the race’s big general classification contenders, Steven Kruijswijk, returned a positive test.

Jumbo-Visma took the decision very late, their team bus the only one not leave the paddock before the start of stage 10 on Tuesday.

Addy Engels, the Jumbo-Visma DS, said it was “the responsible decision for our riders’ health but also for the race.”

With Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) also testing positive, as well as staff members at Ineos Grenadiers and AG2R-La Mondiale, it appears to leave the entire race on the brink.

Jos van Emden, of Team Jumbo-Visma, told The Cycling Podcast on Monday night that the organisation should carry some of the blame for the spate of positives.

“It already went wrong in the first hotel,” he said. “There were four or five teams in there, police moto riders, Shimano Neutral Service and members of the general public. All eating from the same buffet.”

Riders in the Giro stay in a biosecure bubble when not on the road, just as they did for the Tour de France, which finished on Sept. 20. No riders tested positive for the virus that causes Covid-19 while on the French tour.

On the Tour de France, two positive tests in a team within one week would have triggered the ejection of the outfit from the race but no such rule was put in place for the Italian grand tour, which started in Sicily on October 3.

Italy, which hosted the rescheduled world championships last month, has seen a recent rise in coronavirus cases, with a post-lockdown record 5,456 people infected registered last Saturday.

Elite racing resumed in August after a four-and-a-half month hiatus, but the resurgence of Covid-19 in Europe has forced local authorities and organisers to cancel races, such as the Netherlands’ Amstel Gold Race, which had been scheduled for Saturday, and Paris-Roubaix, the “Monument” classic that was due to be raced on October 25.