UAE Tour teams begin to depart post coronavirus scare

Teams taking part in the abandoned UAE Tour began leaving Abu Dhabi on Sunday after being quarantined amid a coronavirus scare.  One of the top cyclists in the race, Britain’s Chris Froome, was headed home along with members of his Team Ineos, after being in lockdown at their Abu Dhabi hotel since Thursday when two Italian staff members with one of the teams tested positive.

“All our riders and staff now leaving UAE after being given the all clear. Thank you to all those who have helped us and looked after the Team over recent days,” the team said on Twitter.

Movistar Team, including 2018 world champion Alejandro Valverde, also tweeted that its members were cleared and on their way to Madrid.

“The pleasure of going home after several days spent at the hotel,” Valverde tweeted.

Dutch team Jumbo-Visma said they were “on the plane back home”, and Israel’s Start-Up Nation said it too left with “clean health bill and all” after the three-day drama.

However, journalists who were confined to a separate hotel were believed to still be under lockdown along with a number of other teams including France’s Cofidis whose rider Nathan Haas tweeted that “our team is required to stay longer”.

“Some of us are still in our rooms in Abu Dhabi with little information despite testing negative for the virus,” said Cofidis’s Spanish rider Jesus Herrada.

And the UAE’s Team Emirates said that although their results came back negative “our team has decided to extend their stay in the UAE to continue testing everyone’s conditions.”

All 133 cyclists who were still in contention as well as team members were tested after the two cases were announced by organisers on Thursday, forcing the event to be cancelled with two stages left to go.

Meanwhile, Danish cyclist Michael Morkov of the Deceuninck-Quick-Step team, who took part in the first four stages of UAE Tour, won the men’s madison title at the world track cycling championships in Berlin on Sunday just a day after being released from coronavirus quarantine.

The 34-year-old was cleared to take part on Saturday and repeated his feat of 11 years ago by clinching victory while partner Lasse Norman Hansen added to his team pursuit win on Thursday.

European champions Morkov and Hansen beat New Zealand in second and Germany’s title holders Roger Kluge and Theo Reinhardt who finished third in the non-Olympic event.

Elsewhere, Germany’s Emma Hinze claimed her third gold medal in five days in the women’s keirin adding to her sprint and team spint successes while the Netherlands’ Harrie Lavreysen retained his men’s sprint title.

Earlier, Britain’s 2017 world champion Elinor Barker claimed victory in the women’s points.