Some are asking whether he does the Tour de France now. But this case has been something waiting to happen, João Almeida was out when sitting fourth overall in the third week last year and while Ganna and Uran were the big names to go already in the Giro, it’s a matter of time until a race leader was involved. It’s very rare to leave a grand tour while in the lead, the last time it happened in the Giro was Pantani’s ejection in 1999 following his failed haematocrit test in Madonna di Campiglio. To reprise an example, if you are betting on someone winning a grand tour five days away from the finish and they lead comfortably by five minutes you should demand longer odds because Covid can still take them out and this is just punters having a flutter, imagine what this does to team plans? As well as Evenepoel, Giovanni Alleoti, Nicola Conci, Filippo Ganna, Clément Russo and Rigoberto Uran have also left the Giro because of Covid, that’s six out of the 15 riders to leave the Giro already and so as a big a cause as any.Įvenepoel’s withdrawal is a bombshell to the race and the sport in general, the leader and a star name. So it’s a constant Sword of Damocles hanging over any rider. Now anyone could get ill before 2020 but this virus is much more contagious than, say, influenza, and there’s a testing regime and protocols for it that don’t exist for other viruses. Yesterday evening’s notes did already mention Covid keeps lurking and as this blog’s argued before it’s a whole new risk category where just as a rider could crash or puncture and lose the race, now they can get Covid-19 and quit the race as well. In the space of a week we’ve gone from the pre-race scenario of an exclusive duel between Evenepoel and Roglič, to Evenepoel not building the lead he needed, and now to Ineos leading the race but only just. But that’s all been binned with the news he’s out of the Giro following a Covid test. Instead he’d have to try and attack once he’d got beyond the rest day and two likely sprint stages that might offer him more recovery after his crashes. Having started on some notes following yesterday’s time trial, all thoughts were Evenepoel having a slender 45 second lead that he’d couldn’t just defend.
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