The Cycling World Champion Remco Evenepoel was forced to withdraw from the Tour of Italy. The 23-year-old from Schepdaal in Flemish Brabant tested positive for coronavirus and was left with no other choice than to return home.
Remco Evenepoel forced to withdraw from the Tour of Italy after testing positive for coronavirus
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The announcement that the Belgian has been forced to pull out of the Giro was made by his Soudal-Quick Step team on its Twitter account on Sunday evening.
Writing a little later on his own Twitter account Remco Evenpoel said that "It is with a heavy heart that I have to announce that I will be leaving the Giro d’Italia”.
The news that Remco Evenpoel had pulled out of the Tour of Italy came at 10:30pm on Sunday evening. "The World Champion and Giro d’Italia maglia rosa Remco Evenepoel is out of the race after testing positive for Covid-19” Soudal-Quick Step's Twitter post read. After his victory in the tim trial Remco Evenepoel had said that he wasn’t feeling too good. “I hope that I am not going to ill” were the cyclist’s prophetic words during a post-race interview. Just a few hours later it was announced that he was to withdraw from the race.
"It is with a heavy heart that that I have to announce that I will be leaving the Giro d’Italia after taking a routine test that unfortunately was positive”. The rest of the Soudal-Quick Step team and its staff all tested negative for coronavirus.
Remco Evenepoel will return home today (Monday 15 May). He said that he was is proud of his two stage victories and four pink jerseys won in the 2023 Tour of Italy before he was forced to withdraw.
