Six additional riders from the Giro d'Italia, including four for Remco Evenepoel's Soudal Quick-Step formation alone, have tested positive for Covid-19 and will not start the 11th stage of the Giro d'Italia on Wednesday. Leader of the Giro, the young Belgian prodigy left the race after a positive test carried out Sunday evening by his team, on the eve of the rest day.

Following this thunderclap, "a series of tests was carried out among the staff still present in Italy, and Jan Hirt, Josef Cerny, Louis Vervaeke and Matteo Cattaneo are unfortunately unable to continue," Soudal Quick-Step said in a statement. Quoted in the text, team doctor Toon Cruyt said that two of them had symptoms on Monday morning.

And if the antigen tests carried out were negative, PCR tests performed on all seven runners of the formation were positive. "We will continue to monitor and implement our testing protocol on the three remaining riders and management," it said.

The reinforced health protocol

Two other positive cases were also reported on Wednesday by the AG2R-Citroën and Corratec teams, respectively the Italians Andrea Vendrame and Stefano Gandin, also not starting in the morning from Camaiore, on the Mediterranean coast. A total of 15 Covid-positive riders have dropped out since the start of the Giro on 6 May.

With the abandonment of the health protocol in force in recent years, nothing in the regulations obliges teams to stop their riders affected by the virus, but most prefer to use the precautionary principle arguing uncertainties about the health consequences of extreme efforts produced during a Covid infection.

After the shock of the abandonment of Remco Evenepoel, the organizers of the Giro announced a reinforcement of health measures, with the obligation to wear a mask in all areas of contact with the riders.

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