All other team members negative in follow-up testing
Matthew Walls (Bora-Hansgrohe) in the best young rider's jersey at the start of stage 2 of Tour de la Provence(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
The Bora-Hansgrohe team have been stopped from riding today's E3 Saxo Bank Classic in Belgium after Britain's Matt Walls tested positive for COVID-19 in final pre-race testing.
The German WorldTour team said that all their other team members tested negative in follow-up PCR tests but, under the Belgian Cycling Federation's COVID-19 protocol, they were not allowed to take part in the race.
The Bora-Hansgrohe team for E3 Saxo Bank Classic included Daniel Oss and Nils Politt but not Peter Sagan, who opted to ride the Volta a Catalunya in Spain before heading to Belgium for the Tour of Flanders next weekend.
A number of teams have been hit by COVID-19 recently. In Spain two members of the Kern Pharma ProTeam tested positive in testing carried out on Thursday and Friday at the Volta a Catalunya.
Australia’s Harry Sweeny of Lotto Soudal did not start the Classic Brugge-De Panne on Wednesday because he was ill and later tested positive for COVID-19 in a PCR test. As a result teammate Tosh Van der Sande was placed into quarantine after finishing the race.
A number of other riders have been hit by COVID-19 in the first months of 2021. Peter Sagan and several Bora-Hansgrohe teammates were forced to quarantine in Gran Canaria after catching the virus during a privately held training camp.
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Stephen is one of the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.
