Spanish cycling will discover on Tuesday the exact consequences of the country's new decree to battle Covid-19 coronavirus which will compel all sporting events to be held behind closed doors.
The decree is due to be formally announced later on Tuesday afternoon and will be in place for at least the next two to three weeks. It will apply across the board to both professional and amateur events.
Information on the decree and reactions to its scope are as yet patchy. In football, La Liga has already announced that its next two rounds of matches will be played behind closed doors but as full details of the decree have yet to be revealed, it is not totally clear as to how it will affect sports that are held outside gated arenas, including cycling.
"We're waiting for further information, beyond that there's nothing more to say," Spanish Cycling Federation president José Luis López Cerrón told Cyclingnews.
"We need to know how this will affect not only cycling but all other sports that aren't held usually in stadiums as well and we're in the course of finding this out."
The Volta a Catalunya, due to start on March 22, is the next slated WorldTour race following the cancellation of several events in Italy, including Milan-San Remo, Tirreno-Adriatico and Strade Bianche.
Back in the UAE, where the virus first affected cycling, UAE Team Emirates and Gazprom-Rusvelo remain in quarantine, almost two weeks after the UAE Tour was cut short due to an outbreak at the race.
As of Tuesday lunchtime, Spain had recorded 1,506 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 35 deaths.
