All the cards are reshuffled on the Giro: the Belgian Remco Evenepoel, great favorite of the Giro d'Italia, left the race Sunday evening after a positive test for Covid-19, announced his team Soudal-Quick Step.
"I'm really sorry to have to leave the race. As part of the team's protocol, I carried out a routine test which unfortunately turned out to be positive," said in a statement the world champion, who had just taken the pink leader's jersey after winning the 9th stage.
"My experience here has been really special and I was looking forward to the last two weeks. I thank the management and the riders who made so many sacrifices to prepare for this Giro. I will encourage them for the remaining two weeks," added the 23-year-old Flemish who is due to return to Belgium on Monday by car, according to his team.
First in the standings ahead of Thomas and Roglic
Remco Evenepoel, who had already retired during his previous participation in the Giro in 2021, was the big favorite of this 106th edition with Slovenian Primoz Roglic.
His forced retirement comes as he had just won the second time of the Giro d'Italia in Cesena, one second ahead of Geraint Thomas and two ahead of the other Briton of the Ineos team, Tao Geoghegan Hart. In the overall standings, he was 45 seconds ahead of Thomas and 47 seconds ahead of Roglic, ahead of Monday's rest day.
See alsoLiège-Bastogne-Liège: imperial, Evenepoel achieves the double
He had a thunderous start to the Giro, winning the inaugural time trial, before crashing twice on Wednesday during the fifth stage and being slightly behind Roglic on Saturday. But there was no indication that the Belgian was affected by the coronavirus.
He is the fifth rider to leave this 106th edition of the Giro because of a positive test for Covid-19 after the Frenchman Clément Russo (Arkéa-Samsic) and the Italians Nicola Conci (Alpecin), Giovanni Aleotti (Bora) and Filippo Ganna (Ineos).
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