- The final two stages of the UAE Tour were canceled due to the rapidly spreading coronavirus.
- After being quarantined in hotel rooms while waiting for test results to come back, riders and staffers have been cleared to leave the country.
The UCI, cycling’s governing body, released a statement saying the last stages of the UAE Tour were cancelled “after two cases of coronavirus were suspected among two staff members of one of the participating teams.”
“The decision has been taken to ensure protection of all the race’s participants,” the UAE Tour organizing committee said.
Britain’s Adam Yates, who had led the overall race after Thursday’s fifth stage, was declared winner of the event after the final two stages fell victim to the coronavirus outbreak.
Second was Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia with Kazak Alexey Lutsenko third.
“The final two days of racing are cancelled due to concerns around Coronavirus,” Yates’s Mitchelton team tweeted on Thursday.
Most of the riders and teams taking part in the abandoned UAE Tour, and who had been quarantined in their Abu Dhabi hotels since Thursday, were cleared to leave the country on Saturday, sources said.
“The pleasure of going home after several days spent at the hotel,” tweeted 2018 world champion Alejandro Valverde.
“We are doing well and soon we will fly to Spain.”
However, there was confusion over how many competitors and officials will be allowed to leave.
All 133 cyclists who were still in contention as well as team members were tested after it was announced by organizers Thursday that two Italian staff members on the race had tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.
Earlier Saturday, the UAE Tour, quoting health officials, said that 167 people had been tested and all were negative.
The Department of Health-Abu Dhabi were “still monitoring the condition of the remaining cases of contacts, whose lab testing findings will be available in the next few hours.”
Danish cyclist Michael Morkov of the Deceuninck–Quick-Step team, who took part in the first four stages, was placed in isolation in his hotel room after arriving in Berlin to take part in the world track championships.
However, on Saturday, he too was cleared.
“The rider present in Berlin is currently in excellent health, with no suspicious clinical signs, and we are also guaranteed that he has not contacted the two members of the management of a team participating in the UAE Tour, originally suspected of coronavirus,” governing body UCI said in a statement.
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The cancellation of the UAE Tour came just a day after Italian golfers Edoardo Molinari and Lorenzo Gagli were quarantined in neighboring Oman over coronavirus fears before being cleared to play in the country’s European Tour event.
Gagli had suffered flu-like symptoms and as Molinari, the older brother of former British Open winner Francesco, was his roommate, both were forced to withdraw from the tournament and placed in isolation as a precautionary measure.
However, they were then cleared to play after the Oman health ministry reported that Gagli’s test results were negative.
The UAE on Friday announced six more cases of coronavirus, taking its total to 19. It did not say if the two Italians were included in the new total.
