Defending Gent-Wevelgem champion Kirsten Wild out after COVID-19 positive

Defending champion Kirsten Wild will not compete in Sunday's Women's WorldTour race Gent-Wevelgem after testing positive for COVID-19, her Ceratizit-WNT team announced late Saturday.

Wild's absence follows that of the entire Alé BTC Ljubljana squad after one of their riders also tested positive.

However, the Ceratizit-WNT team said that Wild's positive test came on Friday before she joined the Gent-Wevelgem race bubble and does not affect their participation.

"Unfortunately I am not able to defend my title in Gent-Wevelgem because I returned a positive COVID-19 test on Friday 9th October," Wild said on the team's Facebook page. "My first COVID-19 test I took on Monday 5th October returned negative but my second is now positive.

"I am very disappointed and sorry for the team that I can't be there. Luckily I got the result before I started my travel towards the team bubble, in which I left after the Giro Rosa on the 19th September, so in no way is the team bubble affected for tomorrow. 

"At the moment I am doing 'relatively' fine and will be in quarantine and will be focusing 100% on my recovery."

Wild is the third pro cyclist to test positive on Friday after Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) left the Giro d'Italia after coming up positive for the coronavirus after having mild symptoms on Friday. Jan Bakelants - also due to race Gent-Wevelgem with Circus-Wanty Gobert - was found to have the virus after displaying symptoms after training on Friday.