Why doesn't Cycling News just come down forcibly in condemning the continuation of the race? For that's the message the reader has been getting all along the course of the event, as if only Cycling News knows what's best for the sport, Italy, humanity at large. Of course Cycling News hasn't reported that Pozzovivo said he thinks there is no perceptible difference with how the bubble was managed at the Tour, but only what a few hoity-toity northerners/Americans have voiced concernedly about the Giro, with an evident disdain for southerns. Why doesn't Cycling News report what Fulgsang said about feeling as safe as could be expected given the circumstances and that he hopes for the race that all the hard mountain stages will take place as planned. In other words, why doesn't Cycling News take a more possitive, or at least more neutral, approach to "informing" the fans, rather than the condescending, undermining stance it has taken thus far? Covid cases have been on the rise it's true, but this isn't only an Italian problem and everybody knew it would occur in October. Should the race not even have begun? Will Cycling News now report as insistently against holding the Vuelta to "advise" the sport of its moral obligation to society?
It's quite amusing that a bike race in which the participants and staff are being secluded from the general public as much as possible, with a much diminished and largely mask-wearing roadside tifosi, should be viewed as any more dangerous to spreading the disease than the millions, and not just in Italy, but all throughout Europe, taking crowded public transportation every single day to get to work.
I never thought I'd agree with Vegni, but the RCS director is perfectly right in pointing out that we didn't find out about Covid just yesterday and it isn't going away tomorrow, thus all we can do is take responsible measures to live with it in the meantime. I don't think Italy, having been hit so hard in the beginning of the pandemic, but then reacting with stringent measures everybody more or less willingly followed, needs to take lessons from anyone on what "taking responsible measures" means. And certainly not from an Anglo-American oriented website.
Other than going back to full quarantine, which the authorities with no little irony are unanimously trying to avoid like the plague, all we can do is wear masks, keep distant and get on with our lives. So why all the negative reporting? It's what folks have to do every day on the intercity trains, urban buses and underground metro systems, not to mention in the office spaces, schools and places of worship.
Of course any rider or team is under no obligation to finish the race, but untoward speculating when not rooting for it to fail or be shut down is a scandalous breech of professionalism.