Effects of coronavirus on professional races

[yaco]

I don't think so - surely the fear is not that the teams will spread the virus but rather that spectators will - whether it is to riders or other spectators.

Which is exactly my point - Having riders/staff fall ill and test positive for COVID19 at a race has shown this is a real situation.

 

[yaco]

Testing doesn’t help as you will most likely come out false negative if you haven’t developed any symptoms yet

Hey - Have you been following this case - Many people who have been exposed to the virus will never get ill or have the mildest of symptoms, hence they never come up in testing results - So being able to infect others when you are asymtomatic is why the virus is spreading - So for the peleton to conduct regular tests, go some way to creating a safe workplace.

 

[Jungle Cycle]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1235193039288705024

View: https://twitter.com/Gazzetta_it/status/1235193039288705024?s=19


After the Giro??

 

[F_Cance]

Overlapping with Tour de Suisse and/or Dauphine? Also the NCs are in June. Impossible to put all 3 (Strade, Tirreno, MSR) within the same 1-2 weeks.

 

[Nirvana]

So, low risk then..?

IMHO there is nothing to worry while staying close to other people outside Lombardia and maybe some nearby area plus very limited zones with local clusters in France and Spain. And i won't be surprised if the ones that want to cancel Strade Bianche and Paris-Nice don't even know that there aren't cases along the routes and think they should pass between a mass of infected coughing droplets on the race.

Anyway I want to clarify that I'm not dismissing the emergence where actually there is one, it's two weeks that I'm criticizing the government for how thay have handled the situation and I would have put the whole Lombardia in lockdown since the beginning but I think putting limitations where there isn't neither an emergence nor an infection is an overreaction when we are probably still in time limit the virus by locking the infected areas.

 

[Sestriere]

Media are now reporting that all universities and schools will be closed for at least two weeks in ALL of Italy.

 

[ThePirate81]

Italian spring races are done and dusted. Giro is in great danger as well. I just don't understand how Belgian and French races can go on despite coronavirus cases being reported in both Nations. Also UCI's silence on UAE Tour events is absurd.

 

[King Boonen]

IMHO there is nothing to worry while staying close to other people outside Lombardia and maybe some nearby area plus very limited zones with local clusters in France and Spain. And i won't be surprised if the ones that want to cancel Strade Bianche and Paris-Nice don't even know that there aren't cases along the routes and think they should pass between a mass of infected coughing droplets on the race.

Anyway I want to clarify that I'm not dismissing the emergence where actually there is one, it's two weeks that I'm criticizing the government for how thay have handled the situation and I would have put the whole Lombardia in lockdown since the beginning but I think putting limitations where there isn't neither an emergence nor an infection is an overreaction when we are probably still in time limit the virus by locking the infected areas.

So, low risk then?

 

[yaco]

Is GP Industria and Artigianto going ahead on March 8 - It's located in Tuscany ?

Postponing MSR, TA and Strade should be no problem because there will be gaps in the calendar for these races.

 

[ThePirate81]

GP Industria & Artigianato takes place in Larciano,Pistoia,Tuscany.
I hope it will be postponed as the other races.

 

[RedheadDane]

Postponing MSR, TA and Strade should be no problem because there will be gaps in the calendar for these races.

When? Also… one of the defining features of Strade is that it takes place in early spring, with high(ish) probabilities of rain, thus making the gravel roads nice and muddy.

 

[Sciatic]

I find it difficult to get the problem in context, because of the wide variance in national responses. Among the cases here in Seattle area is an Amazon employee who works downtown and got sick a week ago (before folks thought much about the virus here). The buses I take to work go through Amazonia on the way to my office, and are packed (squished standing in the aisles) with riders, many who work at Amazon. But there’s no steps about limiting bus travel or limiting any activities here yet. They estimate probably 500-1000 have virus in this county (and 8 deaths). So probably as bad as Tuscany but very different government responses. Makes it hard to get a good read on.

 

[Lequack]

Now even the French races are in danger:

Coronavirus: Team doctors request cancellation of Paris-Nice and Italian races

'It is the responsible thing to do' say 14 doctors in letter to race organisers

www.cyclingnews.com

 

[Rollthedice]

Italy’s government is set to close cinemas and theatres and ban public events across the whole country to try to contain the coronavirus outbreak, according to a draft decree drawn up on Wednesday.

The decree, seen by Reuters, orders “the suspension of events of any nature... that entail the concentration of people and do not allow for a safety distance of at least one metre (yard) to be respected.”

 

[Jagartrott]

Italian spring races are done and dusted. Giro is in great danger as well. I just don't understand how Belgian and French races can go on despite coronavirus cases being reported in both Nations. Also UCI's silence on UAE Tour events is absurd.

There are corona cases everywhere in Europe - what you mean to say is, "I don't know why they allow any events in any country". Oh yes, air pollution kills more than 4 million every year, so why do we allow people to sport anyway? The double standards in all of this is staggering. I understand why you would cancel events in red zones, but now, everything is lumped into one red zone - this is simply BS.

 

[JosephK]

From a Wikipedia article on the 2009 swine flu pandemic: " Annual influenza epidemics are estimated to affect 5–15% of the global population. Although most cases are mild, these epidemics still cause severe illness in 3–5 million people and 290,000–650,000 deaths worldwide." I've just tossed this into the discussion to add to the baseline/perspective maybe, while governments and authorities work to deal specifically with the new corona virus. For instance, in the U.S. alone around 20,000 people have died of the flu this season (September 2019 through February 2020)--the average was around 40,000 annually from 1979 to 2001, just in the U.S. Some of the practical measures being taken by authorities to curtail the spread of the new Covid-19 virus (e.g., travel restrictions based on geographical factors, quarantine for those testing positive, cancellation of certain events with big crowds) might have varying degrees of effectiveness depending on how much the virus has already been spread by non-symptomatic or low-symptom carriers. These and related measures may buy more time for the researchers and big pharma companies to prepare vaccines and more effective anti-viral treatments. On the other hand, it might also be helpful to consider at what point an overabundance of concern becomes counterproductive. -- This isn't to argue against cancellation of races in countries that have been hit harder by the virus (e.g., Italy). In the short term, if only to assuage fears among the population, these kinds of measures probably have value. But I don't think it's misguided to try to get as clear a "big picture" of the situation as possible.

Edit: I will also add that Jagartrott beats me on conciseness.

 

[Nirvana]

I find it difficult to get the problem in context, because of the wide variance in national responses. Among the cases here in Seattle area is an Amazon employee who works downtown and got sick a week ago (before folks thought much about the virus here). The buses I take to work go through Amazonia on the way to my office, and are packed (squished standing in the aisles) with riders, many who work at Amazon. But there’s no steps about limiting bus travel or limiting any activities here yet. They estimate probably 500-1000 have virus in this county (and 8 deaths). So probably as bad as Tuscany but very different government responses. Makes it hard to get a good read on.

How can that be as bad as Tuscany where there are only 19 cases of which 13 confined in a small and remote town on the Monte Amiata, one recovered and anyway all the cases are imported from other areas and then have been put in isolation with no local infection?

 

[Sciatic]

How can that be as bad as Tuscany where there are only 19 cases of which 13 confined in a small and remote town on the Monte Amiata, one recovered and anyway all the cases are imported from other areas and then have been put in isolation with no local infection?

So you’re saying it’s worse than Tuscany here? My point is that the government responses vary so much that’s it’s hard to get a fix on whIch country is overreacting and which is not reacting quickly enough.

 

[Jagartrott]

Edit: I will also add that Jagartrott beats me on conciseness.

That's just because I'm lazy.

Jag ärr trött = I am tired (in Swedish)

 

[Rollthedice]

Following extensive discussions, Mitchelton-SCOTT has made the decision to withdraw its teams from the next period of racing, regardless of the individual Government Regulations in place.

The current period of consideration will run from 04/03/2020 to 22/03/2020 and will include the following races:

Strade Bianche (men and women)
GP Industria (men)
Paris-Nice (men)
Tirreno-Adriatico (men)
Ronde van Drenthe (women)
Danilith Nokere Koerse (women)
Milan-SanRemo (men)
Trofeo Alfredo Binda (women)

 

[ThePirate81]

There are corona cases everywhere in Europe - what you mean to say is, "I don't know why they allow any events in any country". Oh yes, air pollution kills more than 4 million every year, so why do we allow people to sport anyway? The double standards in all of this is staggering. I understand why you would cancel events in red zones, but now, everything is lumped into one red zone - this is simply BS.

https://www.brusselstimes.com/belgi...an-goossens-covid19-testing-lab-insufficient/
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/covid-19-testing/
Check these out.

 

[Lequack]

I guess the Giro is next to be cancelled?

 

[Earns1985]

I guess the Giro is next to be cancelled?

Hopefully, hopefully not.
I have the small hope that the spring heat will help against the virus.

 

[Lequack]

There's going to be a lot of in-form racers with nothing to do.

 

[King Boonen]

There's going to be a lot of in-form racers with nothing to do.

Maybe it's a Zwift conspiracy..?