Post by Nadica (She/Her) on Jun 29, 2024 3:50:37 GMT
Visma-Lease a Bike reintroduce limited anti-COVID protocol at Tour de France - Published June 26, 2024
Facemasks, hand disinfectant gels and PCR tests: if you thought they were a thing of the past in cycling, think again. Visma-Lease a Bike have reintroduced a partial COVID-19 protocol at the 2024 Tour de France, Wielerflits reported on Thursday morning, after a number of new coronavirus cases, one affecting their own team, emerged in the peloton.
The entire team, both staff and riders, wore face masks on the plane to Florence for the Grand Départ, the Dutch website reported, and rapid COVID-19 tests will be carried out on the entire squad every day. A special PCR testing machine will be used should further checks be required.
Face masks are once again recommended in places where large numbers of people assemble, although it is not clear whether the team will wear them this evening during their press conference, where a number of their top riders are expected to be present, prior to the team presentation. Anybody with cold or flu-like symptoms will be placed in isolation.
“It will not be easy to convince everyone of the need for this protocol,” Visma-Lease a Bike sources told WielerFlits. “But if you see how much we invest in the Tour de fance, it is only logical that you try to prevent COVID-19 from getting into the team.”
Earlier this week Visma-Lease a Bike announced that Sepp Kuss, a key mountain support rider for Jonas Vingegaard, would not be taking part after he had not fully recovered from a recent case of COVID-19. Kuss reportedly tested negative multiple times before testing positive and his full recovery is taking longer than expected.
In other teams, David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) recently caught COVID-19, but has now returned to racing at the Tour after skipping the French Nationals to ensure a full recovery, while Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek) had to pull out of the Tour because of a combination of a fractured rib from a crash and a COVID infection.
Introduced in 2020 as the pandemic swept across the world, most COVID-19 protocols in cycling were finally removed or no longer made obligatory by the UCI at the start of this season, much later than many other sports.
Facemasks, hand disinfectant gels and PCR tests: if you thought they were a thing of the past in cycling, think again. Visma-Lease a Bike have reintroduced a partial COVID-19 protocol at the 2024 Tour de France, Wielerflits reported on Thursday morning, after a number of new coronavirus cases, one affecting their own team, emerged in the peloton.
The entire team, both staff and riders, wore face masks on the plane to Florence for the Grand Départ, the Dutch website reported, and rapid COVID-19 tests will be carried out on the entire squad every day. A special PCR testing machine will be used should further checks be required.
Face masks are once again recommended in places where large numbers of people assemble, although it is not clear whether the team will wear them this evening during their press conference, where a number of their top riders are expected to be present, prior to the team presentation. Anybody with cold or flu-like symptoms will be placed in isolation.
“It will not be easy to convince everyone of the need for this protocol,” Visma-Lease a Bike sources told WielerFlits. “But if you see how much we invest in the Tour de fance, it is only logical that you try to prevent COVID-19 from getting into the team.”
Earlier this week Visma-Lease a Bike announced that Sepp Kuss, a key mountain support rider for Jonas Vingegaard, would not be taking part after he had not fully recovered from a recent case of COVID-19. Kuss reportedly tested negative multiple times before testing positive and his full recovery is taking longer than expected.
In other teams, David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) recently caught COVID-19, but has now returned to racing at the Tour after skipping the French Nationals to ensure a full recovery, while Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek) had to pull out of the Tour because of a combination of a fractured rib from a crash and a COVID infection.
Introduced in 2020 as the pandemic swept across the world, most COVID-19 protocols in cycling were finally removed or no longer made obligatory by the UCI at the start of this season, much later than many other sports.