OVER 30 RIDERS FORCED TO QUIT 2022 TOUR DE SUISSE DUE TO COVID-19

Race leader Aleksander Vlasov was among a group of 30 riders who had to withdraw from the Tour de Suisse on Friday due to numerous cases of Covid-19. They joined Adam Yates and the entire Jumbo-Visma team who had to pull out prior to Thursday’s fifth stage for the same reason. Tour of Romandie champion Vlasov won Thursday’s stage to take the overall lead but the Russian rider’s hopes of a second prestigious win were dashed as he tested positive for Covid.

The 26-year-old was joined on the sidelines by all the riders from the UAE-Teams, Bahrain-Victorious and Alpecin-Fenix. Vlasov’s Bora-Hansgrohe team-mate Anton Palzer also withdrew whilst amongst others to be affected were EF Education-Easypost who lost four riders including Colombian veteran Rigoberto Uran.

Vlasov, who has raced as a neutral athlete since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, was replaced as the overall leader by Danish rider Jakob Fuglsang of the Israel-Premier Tech team.

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Most teams were quick to return to masking at the start of stage 6 like Human Powered Health

RIDERS WHO DID NOT START STAGE 6

Stefano OLDANI — Alpecin-Fenix-DNS

Jimmy JANSSENS — Alpecin-Fenix-DNS

Silvan DILLIER — Alpecin-Fenix-DNS

Xandro MEURISSE — Alpecin-Fenix-DNS

Sjoerd BAX — Alpecin-Fenix-DNS

Matteo TRENTIN — UAE Team Emirates-DNS

Marc SOLER UAE Team Emirates-DNS

Diego ULISSI — UAE Team Emirates-DNS

Marc HIRSCHI — UAE Team Emirates-DNS

Joel SUTER — UAE Team Emirates-DNS

Rui COSTA Rui — UAE Team Emirates-DNS

Alessandro COVI — UAE Team Emirates-DNS

Gianluca BRAMBILLA — Trek – Segafredo-DNS

Louis VERVAEKE Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team-DNS

Aleksandr VLASOV Aleksandr — BORA – hansgrohe-DNS

Anton PALZER BORA – hansgrohe-DNS

Tom PIDCOCK — INEOS Grenadiers-DNS

Simone PETILLI — Intermarche – Wanty – Gobert Matériaux-DNS

Alex ARANBURU — Movistar Team-DNS

Sebastian BERWICK Sebastian — Israel – Premier Tech-DNS

Stephen WILLIAMS — Bahrain – Victorious-DNS

Yukiya ARASHIRO — Bahrain – Victorious-DNS

Filip MACIEJUK — Bahrain – Victorious-DNS

Edoardo ZAMBANINI — Bahrain – Victorious-DNS

Johan PRICE-PEJTERSEN — Bahrain – Victorious-DNS

Rigoberto URÁN — EF Education-EasyPost-DNS

Hugh CARTHY — EF Education-EasyPost-DNS

Stefan BISSEGGER — EF Education-EasyPost-DNS

Alberto BETTIOL — EF Education-EasyPost- DNS

RBA/AFP Photos: Sprint Cycling Agency