Cycling, we run with fear-Covid. Dumoulin: “If you are positive, you lose everything”

From our correspondent Ciro Scognamiglio

February 20
– ABU DHABI (UAE)

Covid remains at the center of the debate also in the cycling world and it could not be otherwise, given the greater transmissibility of the Omicron variant which has led to an increase in cases. It has also been seen from the reports of the latest races, it can also be seen at the UAE Tour where almost 10 percent – 13 riders out of 140 potential – were forced to give up mainly because of the positivity to the virus. Lotto-Soudal, an extreme case, will start with 4 riders instead of 7. Sunday the first of the seven stages in Abu Dhabi, and will presumably be a sprint.

The Belgian Speaking with the Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad, his Wout van Aert, who is in retreat on the Teide high ground, said on the subject: “A positive test is enough and all the preparation is in vain. I think we will have to consider not relying on a positive test anymore. We will have to start looking at Covid like other diseases. We haven’t been tested for flu or cold in the past. Obviously, if you get sick then you have to stay at home “.

In conference At the UAE Tour, on the sidelines of the press conference of the most anticipated riders, we asked Filippo Ganna and Tom Dumoulin for an opinion. So Ganna: “Fortunately, now most of the cases seem to me to be asymptomatic. This is already important. But it’s not our job to decide the rules, we stick to what they tell us. We will be able to understand in the future the choices made were right or not, but if they are taken, they are made for the good of the community and not of individuals “. So Dumoulin: “If you are positive here and you have to remain in quarantine for 10 days, it means that you lose all the preparation, the whole spring, even if without symptoms. More or less the same rules as two years ago when the virus was much more deadly and vaccines weren’t there. It is at least strange and can create problems for us. More than cycling, it is something that concerns the rules of the States: I don’t know how much cycling alone can really do “.