It's a first this season.
At the Etoile de Bessèges, the Belgian team Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise had not started because of positive cases of Covid.
But a team that withdraws during the race, that had never happened before.
The orange jerseys of St Michel-Auber 93 were absent this Sunday morning from the starting line of Blausac for the 3rd stage of the Tour des Alpes-Maritimes et du Var, an event in which some big names from the peloton such as Thomas, Van Avermaet, participate. Pinot, Gaudu, Mollema, Woods or Quintana.
Saturday morning, the 6 runners from St Michel and the 5 staff members had passed a Covid test.
In the evening, the results came out and a runner (whose identity was not disclosed) tested positive.
“It's a big blow, sighs manager Stéphane Javalet.
We can take all possible precautions, but it falls on us… This is the first time that I have left a race this way, it hurts.
Especially since we had ambitions on this last stage with Stéphane Rossetto who checked and recognized it.
But it was more reasonable to leave to respect the other riders.
When I brought my runners back early this morning
(Editor's note: Sunday)
at the airport and at the Nice train station, it was really gloomy.
But the most important thing is that we do not have other cases that appear in the coming days and that everyone can return quietly to their families.
"
The other runners considered as contact cases
But this mishap will have consequences for the next races of the team.
All the riders and members of the staff present this weekend at the Tour du Haut Var are considered as contact cases and must therefore respect isolation of at least one week, or even ten days with the entry into force on Monday 22 February of new rules which now extend isolation to ten days.
They will not be able to participate in the two Drôme-Ardèche Buckles events next Saturday and Sunday.
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The peloton, a nest of microbes!
St Michel-Auber 93 having only 11 riders, he only has five riders available.
Among them, Anthony Maldonado, who will return to school after the operation for a cyst this winter and contamination with ... Covid.
“It will not be 100%, estimates Javalet.
We expect to have difficult times.
But we have no choice, we have to hang on.
"