All of Mitchelton-Scott, Kruijswijk out of the Giro after COVID positives
Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) and the entire Mitchelton-Scott team are out of the Giro d’Italia after testing positive for coronavirus.
In a joint announcement with the UCI, RCS revealed on Tuesday morning that two riders — one from Sunweb and one from Jumbo-Visma — had tested positive for the virus and had been “entrusted to the respective teams’ doctors who ordered their isolation measures”. Jumbo-Visma later confirmed that the affected rider was Steven Kruijswijk, the team’s GC leader and one of the pre-race favourites.
“[Kruijswijk] will not appear at the start of the tenth stage of the Giro d’Italia,” the team said via Twitter. “Kruijswijk tested positive on [sic] Covid-19 on the rest day. As a result, he has to leave the race.”
???????? #Giro @s_kruijswijk will not appear at the start of the tenth stage of the Giro d’Italia. Kruijswijk tested positive on Covid-19 on the rest day. As a result, he has to leave the race.
— Team Jumbo-Visma cycling (@JumboVismaRoad) October 13, 2020
Team Sunweb has not yet announced which of its riders tested positive.
The joint UCI/RCS announcement also revealed that a total of six staff members had tested positive for coronavirus: four from Mitchelton-Scott and one each from Ag2r-La Mondiale and Ineos Grenadiers. Mitchelton-Scott announced a short time later that it had withdrawn its entire team from the race.
“Following two rounds of negative COVID-19 test results on Friday and Saturday, the team was notified of four positive results for staff members from testing conducted on Sunday evening,” the team announced via a press release. “Upon receiving the results, Mitchelton-Scott immediately withdrew its team from the race and will focus on the health of its riders and staff and their safe movement to areas of quarantine.”
General manager Brent Copeland said the team had withdrawn “as a social responsibility to our riders and staff, the peloton and the race organisation”. He explained that the affected individuals “remain asymptomatic” or have “mild symptoms.”
Mitchelton-Scott’s withdraw comes three days after its GC leader Simon Yates withdrew from the race after testing positive for COVID-19. At the time, all other riders and staff returned negative tests.
#Giro UPDATE:
With the health of riders & staff our priority, we have withdrawn from the @giroditalia after results of the rest day COVID-19 testing, our 3rd round of testing in 3 days, revealed positive results for some of our staff.
Full details ????https://t.co/PWd7q5kcdL
— Mitchelton-SCOTT (@MitcheltonSCOTT) October 13, 2020
All riders and staff at the Giro were tested for coronavirus on Sunday and Monday. A total of 571 tests were conducted.
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