They thought they could leave their Abu Dhabi hotel any hour. They will have to wait ten more days. Confined in the establishment since Thursday evening and the stop of the Tour of the United Arab Emirates after two suspected cases of coronavirus, the riders and the supervision of three cycling teams will have to stay there until March 14. Information made public by the Cofidis team, several representatives of whom are stranded on the spot, and confirmed to Paris by the president of the International Cycling Union (UCI), David Lappartient, who is participating in a meeting on the subject this Wednesday morning.
On the evening of March 3, the emirate's health ministry announced the appearance in the country of six new cases of coronavirus, linked to the trial. "Two Russians, two Italians, a German and a Colombian" are concerned added the same source, without specifying whether they were runners or members of the team.
The French teams Cofidis and Groupama-FDJ, as well as the Russian formation Gazprom, all three confined to the W hotel in Abu Dhabi, will have to undergo new tests in the coming days. They have already undergone two screenings on February 28 and March 1. In addition to these three teams, the UAE-Team Emirates formation announced in a press release that it remained on site "as a precaution".
"Several months of work thrown in the trash"
In the hotel establishment, the atmosphere had tightened in recent days in the face of the lack of information on the end of their isolation. "In a way, it is a kind of relief. What was difficult to live so far was the lack of a deadline and the permanent expectation of a close outcome that never happened. Now we know what to expect, ”explains the president of the Cofidis team, Thierry Vittu.
This Wednesday morning, the runners were still trying to kill time. On Instagram, Groupama-FDJ's Dutchman Ramon Sinkeldam posted a video of his partner, the Frenchman Arnaud Démare, cleaning their rooms. Others, like the Spaniard from Cofidis Jesús Herrada, expressed their annoyance. "Several months of work thrown in the trash," he regretted.
Y aqui seguimos .. 6 ° día. Resulta hay positivos en otro equipo. Lo lógico hubiese sido dejarnos salir justo después de nuestro segundo negativo en el test, pero no, aquí nos seguimos retenidos. Muchos meses de trabajo tirados a la basura y lo peor, privados de nuesta libertad
- Jesús Herrada López (@ jesushl90) March 4, 2020Athletes do not even have access to their bikes to train on a home trainer. “We are de-training, we are mentally undermined and that will weigh on the rest of our program for the season. I have to run the Tour of Catalonia in three weeks and I already know that I will not arrive in the form I wanted, "explained us on March 2, Cofidis Frenchman, Stéphane Rossetto.
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This Tuesday, the Minister of Sports, Roxana Maracineanu, had announced to be optimistic on the outcome of the situation for the blocked teams. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, via its embassy on the spot, keeps abreast of developments. Which should obviously last until the middle of the month…
