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Effects of coronavirus on professional races

Several races in China have already been cancelled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in the people's republic. Most cases outside of China could first be tracked back to people that recently visited China. In the last week, human-to-human transmission has first been observed on a larger scale outside of China, mainly in South Korea, Iran and Italy.

With regards to cycling, the upcoming spring races in Italy could be affected. Several towns are under quarantine in the Lombardy region and sports events have been cancelled or are held without spectators.

This thread serves to discuss news regarding races affected by the virus outbreak.


Cancelled:
Tour of Chongming Island (2.WWT) (7th May 2020 - 9th May 2020)
Tour of Zhoushan Island (2.2) (12th May 2020 - 14th May 2020)
Tour of Taiyuan (2.2) (31st May 2020 - 8th June 2020)
Tour of Hainan (2.HC) (23rd Februray 2020 - 1st March 2020)
UAE Tour (2.UWT) (23rd Feb - 29th Feb)

Threatened:
Milano-Sanremo (1.UWT) (21st March)

Mentoined in connection with coronavirus:
Strade Bianche (1.UWT) (7th March)
Tirreno-Adriatico (2.UWT) (11th March - 17th March)


Recent Interview of Mauro Vegni confirming that in particular Milano-Sanremo is threatened to be cancelled, because of the starting location in Milan.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/coronavirus-has-me-worried-over-milan-san-remo-says-vegni/
 
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Theoretically road cycling should be the least affected because it doesn't take place in stadiums, and the crowds are often dispersed along the route - It may be a case of restricting spectators at the start and the finish and stopping team presentations - Some could say it's like a Middle East race - You gotta try to achieve as much normality as possible as COVID 19 will travel around the world.
 
Theoretically road cycling should be the least affected because it doesn't take place in stadiums, and the crowds are often dispersed along the route - It may be a case of restricting spectators at the start and the finish and stopping team presentations
It's easier said than done. Let's say you put barriers outside Piazza del Campo in Siena. Wouldn't crowds gather next to the barriers nonetheless?

Strade Bianche and Tirreno (at the moment) are outside the regions that put on restrictions on sporting events.
For now.
Hard to predict what's gonna happen in a week.
 
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It's easier said than done. Let's say you put barriers outside Piazza del Campo in Siena. Wouldn't crowds gather next to the barriers nonetheless?


For now.
Hard to predict what's gonna happen in a week.

This virus is uncontainable at the moment, though there is a school of thought, that hot weather may affect it's contagiousness - Give it a few months and if you operate on Ground Zero then the world will ground to a halt.
 
Theoretically road cycling should be the least affected because it doesn't take place in stadiums, and the crowds are often dispersed along the route - It may be a case of restricting spectators at the start and the finish and stopping team presentations - Some could say it's like a Middle East race - You gotta try to achieve as much normality as possible as COVID 19 will travel around the world.

The problem with cycling is the riders and circus that follow them move so quick from country to country. An infected soigneur or mechanic could be a big problem
 
It isn’t just people, plenty of teams have bases/service courses in areas that are likely to be affected so they won’t be able to get their kit out or in. Not to mention the organisations like RCS. I can see a whole host of races being cancelled this year, it could even lead to organisations going out of business.
 
This virus is uncontainable at the moment, though there is a school of thought, that hot weather may affect it's contagiousness - Give it a few months and if you operate on Ground Zero then the world will ground to a halt.

What? Maybe I misunderstand, but I think the opposite is accurate. There is reason to believe (and hope) that warmer weather will stop the spreading of the virus, like it did with SARS.
 
Everything could be cancelled. It's hysteria and probably in vain, anyway, since people can pass on the virus before the end of the incubation period, so you can't contain it without ordering a world-wide quarantine period of 2 weeks for all people.

But the disease isn't even much more dangerous than the regular flu but because it has a fancy name, an exotic origin and that the media can talk of nothing else, apparently it has to stop everything. It's nonsensical.
 
Everything could be cancelled. It's hysteria and probably in vain, anyway, since people can pass on the virus before the end of the incubation period, so you can't contain it without ordering a world-wide quarantine period of 2 weeks for all people.

But the disease isn't even much more dangerous than the regular flu but because it has a fancy name, an exotic origin and that the media can talk of nothing else, apparently it has to stop everything. It's nonsensical.
The mortality seems to be around 20 times higher than influenza. Saying it is "only an exotic flu" is careless.
 
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Everything could be cancelled. It's hysteria and probably in vain, anyway, since people can pass on the virus before the end of the incubation period, so you can't contain it without ordering a world-wide quarantine period of 2 weeks for all people.

But the disease isn't even much more dangerous than the regular flu but because it has a fancy name, an exotic origin and that the media can talk of nothing else, apparently it has to stop everything. It's nonsensical.
Sure, the science isn't there yet to provide guidance on the best measures to take, and there's probably overly vigilant responses based on politics rather than science. So, been through airport security? One could complain endlessly about these kind of responses to threats.

I'd suggest we keep this thread about whether particular races are happening or not, and whether there will be changes to the course, for the fans viewing, whether teams (or individual riders) might pull out of races, etc.
 
A lot of that has to do that elderly, heart patients,... can't get a vaccine for it, because it simply doesn't exist yet. Mortality rate for influenza would also be much higher if there wasn't a vaccine for it.
Doesn't really matter that much what the reason for the higher mortality is though. As long as there is no vaccine, it is more deadly than influenza to current knowledge.

Anyway, we should probably leave discussions about the virus and pandemic to the respective thread in the café.
 
Doesn't really matter that much what the reason for the higher mortality is though. As long as there is no vaccine, it is more deadly than influenza to current knowledge.

Anyway, we should probably leave discussions about the virus and pandemic to the respective thread in the café.

Yes please.

Keep this thread about the virus cancelling races, other things can be discussed in the cafe.
 
The problem with cycling is the riders and circus that follow them move so quick from country to country. An infected soigneur or mechanic could be a big problem

Yes, this is true - But despite the best efforts of authorities the virus will continue to spread - But you can't completely close down the world - I live in Hong Kong and as an example, the horse racing has continued behind closed doors - One of the participants tests positive and then everything will stop for 2 weeks - So you have to take it on a case by case basis.
 
The mortality seems to be around 20 times higher than influenza. Saying it is "only an exotic flu" is careless.

You need to understand that health authorities only report people who have symptoms and then test positive - Reckon you could extrapolate that the number of people who have antibodies is probably x 5000 - Anyway in terms of cycling it will be decided on a case by case basis.
 
The main problem is not the case fatality rate (which will probably be less than 2% when things are settled, and mostly hitting the elders).
The main problem is that there is currently no vaccine for COVID-19 (while there is for common flu) hence if there is a massive outbreak, a very large amount of people will need to be hospitalized. The italian health system is not prepared for such an occurrence.

This is why it's premature to say Strade Bianche can't be affected. If a cluster of cases appear for whatever reason in Tuscany, authorities will be quick to shut everything down, I have no doubt about it. Luckily the situation seems to be under control at the moment in that area so if nothing changes the race will take place.

Milan is different though. It is extremely close to the area south of Lodi, where the initial outbreak took place. Add the economical/financial importance of the city and you'll understand why authorities are being very cautious. A number of public events have already been postponed. They will cancel Milano-Sanremo in a heartbeat if they need to.
 
Milan is different though. It is extremely close to the area south of Lodi, where the initial outbreak took place. Add the economical/financial importance of the city and you'll understand why authorities are being very cautious. A number of public events have already been postponed. They will cancel Milano-Sanremo in a heartbeat if they need to.

I don't really get why Vegni was so quick to dismiss the idea of starting the race a little down the road, outside the city of Milan.

It would change absolutely nothing for the race if it was a little bit shorter.
 
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One worldwide study found out that influenza has 5.9 in 100.000 mortality rate (56 in 100K for ages>65). causing on average almost 400.000 deaths a year.
Coronavirus has been early rated at 2%, but currently it's over 3%. Under current data, it 500 times deadlier than influenza.
The infection is being controlled by quarantines, but the 14 day period resets for closer contacts of a new case. That's one of the reasons Hubei is still in quarantine after January 23. But this has been effective.

Imho, it's not the worst beast but the world needs to be careful until science gets a better knowledge of it, including prevention, detection* and treatment
* By detection I mean, there have been lab kits in theUS that were not good. Hubei changed its measure from lab confirmation to clinical diagnostic, carriers have passed tests only to find they have the virus later, etc...