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ROME – The Giro d’Italia plunged into chaos on Tuesday when two full teams, another overall contender and one more elite rider withdrew from the bike race after a series of positive tests for the coronavirus.
The Mitchelton-Scott and Jumbo-Visma teams dropped out of the race before Stage 10.
Four Mitchelton-Scott staff members tested positive. That came after Mitchelton-Scott team leader Simon Yates pulled out before Saturday’s eighth leg after also contracting COVID-19.
Dutch contender Steven Kruijswijk from Jumbo-Visma and Team Sunweb rider Michael Matthews also tested positive for 571 tests of all riders and staff members coinciding with Monday’s rest day. Kruijswijk and Matthews were withdrawn from the event.
Then Jumbo-Visma announced minutes before the stage began that he was also withdrawing the rest of his team. Still, the stage started with the remaining 20 teams and the remaining 145 riders.
“We have all been in contact with [Kruijswijk] over the last few days, ” Jumbo-Visma sports director Addy Engels told RAI state television. “So the risk of passing it on to someone else has been there for several days. We are not going to take the risk anymore.”
In addition, a staff member from the Grenadiers of Ineos team and a staff member from AG2R-La Mondiale tested positive and were placed in isolation.
Giro director Mauro Vegni has suggested that the race will not have a winner if it does not end as planned in Milan on October 25. The race has already been rescheduled from its regular May schedule due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“This morning, all teams with positive cases received new and rapid tests and we will do it again tomorrow,” said Vegni. “We have done almost 1,500 tests and frankly it is impossible to do more than that.
“Everyone’s goal is still to get to Milan.”
Italy has been hovering around 5,000 new coronavirus cases a day, prompting the government to consider further restrictions after making masks mandatory outdoors last week.
The tenth stage of the Giro was being contested in the central region of Abruzzo, on a 177-kilometer (110-mile) stretch from Lanciano to Tortoreto.
Mitchelton-Scott general manager Brent Copeland said the team’s positives returned after a third round of testing in three days.
“As a social responsibility of our riders and staff, the peloton and the organization of the race, we have made the clear decision to withdraw,” said Copeland. “Fortunately, those affected remain asymptomatic or with mild symptoms. … We are now focused on transporting them safely to areas where they feel more comfortable to carry out a quarantine period.”
Kruijswijk was 11th overall, 1 minute 24 seconds behind the race leader, Joao Almeida. He has had three top-10s in his career at the Giro.
“Within the team we take a lot of steps to avoid contamination. And I feel fit. I can’t believe I succeeded. It is a great disappointment to receive this news,” Kruijswijk said. “It’s a shame he has to leave the Giro like this.”
Matthews was not in general contention, he was almost an hour behind Almeida, but he is a fierce rider and a strong sprinter looking for stage victories. The Australian rider has won a total of eight stages in the three Grand Tours: the Giro (two), the Tour de France (three) and the Spanish Tour (three).
Sunweb said Matthews “is currently asymptomatic, feeling healthy and after receiving the results early this morning, he is now in quarantine.” The team added that all other passengers and staff members tested negative.
Matthews finished in the top five in this year’s race, including a second place on stage 6 behind Arnaud Demare.
“Disappointed that this is how the Giro ended for me after a fantastic first week with the team,” Matthews wrote on Twitter. “For now, I’ll start my isolation and monitor things closely. Hoping to make a full recovery and get back to racing soon.”
