In hindsight, the signs were there. Remco Evenepoel all but said as much in his press conference on Sunday afternoon, when he revealed he had been suffering from a blocked nose ahead of the Giro d’Italia’s stage 9 time trial. “Let’s touch wood that it’s not a virus,” he said. “I don’t want to say the [name of the] virus, that would not be good luck. We will see.”
Although Evenepoel regained the maglia rosa by winning in Cesena, both the margin and manner of his victory were altogether less convincing than anybody had expected. It was a victory that felt curiously like a defeat, and the bags under Evenepoel’s eyes at the finish showed just how much it had taken out of him.
That bittersweet victory came just 24 hours after a subdued display on the road to Fossombrone, where Evenepoel was surprisingly distanced on the climb of I Cappuccini, losing 14 seconds to Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), Geraint Thomas and Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers). The Belgian was so perplexed by the setback that he reached for a most improbable explanation, namely that he had been weighed down by the white paint job on his bike.
The truth was more prosaic. Late on Sunday evening, Soudal-QuickStep issued a short statement to announce that Evenepoel had tested positive for COVID-19 after the stage and would abandon the Giro with immediate effect. Suddenly, his (relative) travails over the previous 48 hours made perfect sense. Not bad for a guy with COVID, to coin a phrase from this Giro.
COVID-19 testing is no longer mandatory at Grand Tours, and Evenepoel would have been within his rights to remain in the Giro even after his positive test. In that context, it was notable that Soudal-QuickStep chose to announce his abandon publicly and immediately on Sunday night rather than waiting to see if he showed any signs of recovery during Monday’s rest day. Then again, perhaps the perceptible downturn in Evenepoel’s performances this weekend had already told them the direction of travel.
Tour de France
When Evenepoel lined up for this Giro d’Italia, the expectation was that he might echo Eddy Merckx’s 1968 victory by claiming the maglia rosa on the Tre Cime di Lavaredo. Instead, he emulates Merckx’s doomed 1969 Giro by leaving the race while wearing the pink jersey. It must be stressed, however, that Merckx was expelled from that Giro because he tested positive for a doping substance, which is very different to Evenepoel’s voluntary withdrawal after…
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