Effects of coronavirus on professional races

[Bonimenier]

2022 Vuelta a San Juan cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic

Evenepoel, Ganna, Sagan and Viviani forced to change early season race schedules

www.cyclingnews.com

Now official
Let´s hope that other races in January and February will not be concerned...

I doubt that a lot of European races will be in danger.

Cancellation of San Juan will probably mean that Valencia will have a stronger field.

 

[yaco]

Should be no problem with the European races or the UAE Tour - Could their be a question mark over the Saudi Tour.

 

[IndianCyclist]

The daily cases are 4 times the earlier records. Restrictions are coming back and the races are not going to be priority. Hopefully this is not as deadly as the previous strains.

 

[tobydawq]

The daily cases are 4 times the earlier records. Restrictions are coming back and the races are not going to be priority. Hopefully this is not as deadly as the previous strains.

It isn't.

 

[Breh]

I don't really fear for the races. They'll probably continue.

I fear for the amount of cases tho. Last year we've had very little cases in races. The exploding amount of cases will result in plenty of riders being forced to quarantine. Omicron might be less deadly but if we do not change the quarantine rules alot of people will have to isolate because of how transmittable it is.

Just look at Premier League..

 

[tobydawq]

I don't really fear for the races. They'll probably continue.

I fear for the amount of cases tho. Last year we've had very little cases in races. The exploding amount of cases will result in plenty of riders being forced to quarantine. Omicron might be less deadly but if we do not change the quarantine rules alot of people will have to isolate because of how transmittable it is.

Just look at Premier League..

Yeah, I have the same fear. Luckily, there are still a few months to the important races, so I hope the governments will have come to realise that we don't need to do this dance with the virus anymore by then.

 

[Cookster15]

Bring on the coming season. Really need something to distract from the damn pandemic. As for "exploding" cases, let see how dangerous omicron really is? The race organizers should be asked to explain why they cancel races if the virus isn't really harmful any more thanks to widespread vaccination or community immunity.

 

[Koronin]

I don't know what is going on in Europe with quarantine but in the US it's changed. The NFL is going with 5 day quarantine for vaccinated athletes and then they can start trying to get their two negative tests. They've had a bunch of players on the list come off the list fairly quickly due to that change. Of course they've also more or less stopped testing asymptomatic vaccinated players as well.

 

[hayneplane]

Should be no problem with the European races or the UAE Tour - Could their be a question mark over the Saudi Tour.

Would not be surprised if UAE Tour had fully vaccinated as a requirement of entry to the country for both riders and staff. Not sure if that would impact on anyone high profile.

 

[hayneplane]

I don't know what is going on in Europe with quarantine but in the US it's changed. The NFL is going with 5 day quarantine for vaccinated athletes and then they can start trying to get their two negative tests. They've had a bunch of players on the list come off the list fairly quickly due to that change. Of course they've also more or less stopped testing asymptomatic vaccinated players as well.

Its a lot easier to do that in team sports where they only play once a week. It would be much worse with cycling stage races i.e. imagine Pogacar testing positive for covid while asymptomatic 2 weeks into last years tour when leading by 5 minutes. The eventual winner would have an enormous asterisk next to their name in the record books and fans minds.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Rumor has it UAE tour might be postponed.

 

[yaco]

That would be surprising as there have been many international sporting events in the last few months in the UAE.

Edit - Part of the Bahrain Victorious team are currently in Dubai for training and a race on Sunday.

 

[Koronin]

Here's the latest protocols for the NBA:

NBA changes COVID protocols, shortens path to return to play

The league announced the protocol adjustments in a memo sent to teams on Monday.

www.nba.com

Here's the latest from the NHL. I don't particularly like the source (however it's in better sources as well, just behind paywalls.)

NHL alters COVID protocols after new CDC guidelines

The CDC reduced the recommended time for isolation after a positive test from 10 days to five, and the NHL is following suit.

nypost.com

 

[Kaptain Kool]

Its a lot easier to do that in team sports where they only play once a week. It would be much worse with cycling stage races i.e. imagine Pogacar testing positive for covid while asymptomatic 2 weeks into last years tour when leading by 5 minutes. The eventual winner would have an enormous asterisk next to their name in the record books and fans minds.

The GTs were completed in Fall 2020 and the world knows has much better methods on how to deal with COVID. Maybe some people view the Giro that year as a little non-normal but that's their problem.
Off the top of my head, in 2021 I can only think of smaller races with lax COVID protocols that lost a large number of riders/teams (e.g. Volta Portugal).

 

[hayneplane]

The GTs were completed in Fall 2020 and the world knows has much better methods on how to deal with COVID. Maybe some people view the Giro that year as a little non-normal but that's their problem.
Off the top of my head, in 2021 I can only think of smaller races with lax COVID protocols that lost a large number of riders/teams (e.g. Volta Portugal).

Yeah but the Covid strains prevalent now are much more transmissible than the ones in circulation at that time.

Tour and Vuelta got through well but the Giro lost some bug contenders to Covid positives.

 

[IndianCyclist]

considering the explosion of cases, the probability of inviting foreign teams looks low. Cycling heartland France, Italy, Spain have the highest number of cases. Vaccination, survival of the fittest and Herd immunity look to be the only options with Governments paralyzed and running around like headless chickens

 

[BlueRoads]

considering the explosion of cases, the probability of inviting foreign teams looks low. Cycling heartland France, Italy, Spain have the highest number of cases. Vaccination, survival of the fittest and Herd immunity look to be the only options with Governments paralyzed and running around like headless chickens

I don't know about your government, but ours is certainly not hesitating to put all life on hold.

 

[Earns1985]

considering the explosion of cases, the probability of inviting foreign teams looks low. Cycling heartland France, Italy, Spain have the highest number of cases. Vaccination, survival of the fittest and Herd immunity look to be the only options with Governments paralyzed and running around like headless chickens

Well, if we are lucky, then Omikron will peak in about a week in western europe (at least in France, Italy, Spain). After that we have to hope, that the cases decrease as fast as they increased. That would mean, that in mid february the cases will be not that high anymore.

There are a lot of if´s in it, but if this would become true, then only the january and the february would be problematic in terms of cycling races.

 

[tobydawq]

So, now all athletes who want to compete in French events need vaccines.

I have one question.

Why?

 

[yaco]

My guess is not 100% of riders or team staff have been vaccinated - Of course the attention will be in the detail.

 

[search]

So, now all athletes who want to compete in French events need vaccines.

I have one question.

Why?

because on from now, you basically will need to be vaccinated for everything you do in France. So it's not aimed at professional athletes in particular, but more at them as part of those entering the sporting venue. No exception for anyone.

For an epidemiological discussion whether this makes sense or not, or if cycling as an outdoor sport should even be included, I guess the other thread is a better place.

 

[tobydawq]

because on from now, you basically will need to be vaccinated for everything you do in France. So it's not aimed at professional athletes in particular, but more at them as part of those entering the sporting venue. No exception for anyone.

For an epidemiological discussion whether this makes sense or not, or if cycling as an outdoor sport should even be included, I guess the other thread is a better place.

Yes, but the latter was what I was aiming at. It's absurd.

 

[Valanga]

Do we know of any hot shots that are not vaccinated?

 

[search]

Do we know of any hot shots that are not vaccinated?

no idea, but van Avermaet announced to delay his booster till after Paris-Roubaix, which normally would exceed the then allowed 4-month window between 2nd and booster shot in France. As he had covid in November though, and everyone recovered within the past 6 months gets the pass vaccinal as well, it shouldn't be an issue for him.

Also generally, given the current infection numbers, there probably won't be many left who are not either vaccinated or recovered anyway. So I doubt it'll affect many - at least for the first half of the year.

 

[postmanhat]

Although it seems to hitting much of Western Europe much harder at the moment, hopefully some of their governments will look at what's happening in The UK and not implement any further measures which might impact the cycling schedules. Cases have plummeting here for over a week now. Omicron really does fall off a cliff it seems.

This is not meant as a nationalistic boast, I detest our current government. We were hit with it first so hopefully it won't be too long before the same effect is seen elsewhere.