Jumbo-Visma withdraw from Giro following positive Covid tests
Jumbo-Visma have become the second team with pull out of the Giro d’Italia due to coronavirus.
The Dutch WorldTour squad has confirmed they will not race stage 10 of the Giro after their leader Steven Kruijswijk tested positive for coronavirus.
Kruijswijk was one of two riders who has been forced to leave the race after returning a positive result for Covid-19 during testing on the first rest day.
Michael Matthews (Sunweb) was the other rider and the Australian has also withdrawn.
Jumbo-Visma said in a statement: “Team Jumbo-Visma won’t start in today’s tenth stage of the Giro d’Italia. More information will follow.”
All riders and team staff at the Giro d’Italia were tested during the rest day on Monday (October 12), with Kruijswijk, Matthews and six staff members testing positive.
Jumbo sports director Addy Engels said: “In our opinion, it’s the most responsible decision with one positive case in the team being Stevie. We’ve all been close to him. And also looking to what happened to Mitchelton-Scott: started with one case, and now another four in the last test yesterday. So we’ve decided to pick the the most responsible decision in terms of the health of our riders and staff.”
Engels added: “It’s a big thing to withdraw from a race anyway, and especially from a race like this. In our opinion, it’s also in the interest of the race to do it like this, because riders have been in touch with Stevie closely, if they continue, I think for one weekend, that might be another couple of positives.
“So I think this is the safest way not only for us as a team, but I think also for the bunch and for the continuation of the Giro.”
The team were informed of Kruijswijk’s positive late last night and were then informed the team would be re-tested on Tuesday morning.
Team management then had a call to decided whether to continue with the race, with the opinions of riders and staff also taken into account, according to Engels.
Mitchelton-Scott has also decided to withdraw their entire team from the race before stage 10, after four of their workers were diagnosed with coronavirus.
The team had already lost their GC leader Simon Yates, who withdrew from the race after testing positive for coronavirus in the first week.
