Vincenzo Nibali out of Vuelta a Andalucia after COVID-19 positive

ALTO DE LAS ANTENAS DEL MAIGMO TIBI ALICANTE SPAIN FEBRUARY 04 Vincenzo Nibali of Italy and Astana Qazaqstan Team competes during the 73rd Volta A La Comunitat Valenciana 2022 Stage 3 a 1551km stage from Alicante to Alto De Las Antenas Del Maigmo Tibi 1080m VCV2022 on February 04 2022 in Alicante Spain Photo by Dario BelingheriGetty Images
Vincenzo NIbali (Astana Qazaqstan) (Image credit: Getty Images Sport)

Vincenzo Nibali will not ride this week’s Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista del Sol after testing positive for COVID-19.

Nibali was due to line-up alongside new Astana Qazaqstan teammates Miguel Angel López, Alexey Lutsenko and fellow Italian Valerio Conte but now faces time in isolation before he can return to training.

"The team will communicate about his new racing program later," said Astana Qazaqstan on Twitter when announcing that he would miss the five-stage race starting on Wednesday.

On Monday, Toms Skujiņš of Trek-Segafredo revealed he will be unable to ride the Volta ao Algarve in Portugal after also testing positive in a pre-travel rapid test. On Friday, Richard Carapaz of Ineos Grenadiers tested positive for COVID-19 while competing in the Tour de la Provence and immediately withdrew from the French stage race.

Even with high vaccination rates, the peloton has been hit by the omicron COVID-19 variant, with cases disrupting pre-season training camps and then race schedules. Peter Sagan missed 17 days of training with his new TotalEnergies teammates in January and the Jumbo-Visma team closed down their training camp after an outbreak of cases.

Jumbo-Visma and BikeExchange-Jayco both withdrew from the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana after positive cases. The Movistar team only removed the two riders who had tested positive but a week later they were forced to miss races, with Alejandro Valverde unable to ride his home race, the Vuelta Ciclista a la Region de Murcia at the weekend and the new Clásica Jaén Paraíso Interior gravel race.

Stephen Farrand
Head of News

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.