Although not at the same level as a few months ago, the covid is still present among us, also in professional sports. During the Vuelta a España positives have been announced and therefore abandonments of several cyclists and the last to join the list of casualties has been Simon Yates, who was fifth overall after stage 10.
The British rider, champion of the Vuelta in 2018, will not be at the start of the eleventh stage of the Spanish round between Murcia and Cabo de Gata after showing symptoms of the virus in the last hours and confirming his contagion in the daily test at that cyclists undergo. His team, the BikeExchange, reported the bad news in a statement.
“During the night our cyclist Simon Yates presented some symptoms of covid with a slight fever and body aches,” explained the doctor of the Australian team, the Catalan Dani Castillo, who prioritized “the health and well-being of the cyclist.” The BikeExchange also announced that it “will conduct further testing to ensure the safety of other riders and staff members.”
For Yates it is another misfortune in the grand tours, since of the last five he could only finish last year’s edition of the Giro, where he finished in third position. The Englishman had options to get on the podium in the Vuelta, less than a minute behind fourth-placed Carlos Rodríguez, and 1m47s behind third-placed Enric Mas.
Before presenting symptoms of covid, Yates finished in a good seventh place in the time trial of the tenth stage between Elche and Alicante, where the leader, Remco Evenepoel, prevailed, who consolidated the first position and points to the winner of the 77th edition of the race, with a lead of 2m41s over Primoz Roglic, current champion and currently second classified. The Slovenian lost 48 seconds more on the Belgian yesterday.
