Kirsten Wild cannot defend her title in Gent-Wevelgem on Sunday. The 37-year-old rider of Ceratizit-WNT was tested positive for the corona virus on Friday and was forced to cancel, her team announced on Saturday. Twitter.
“My first corona test last Monday was negative, but the second test positive,” said Wild. “I am very disappointed that I cannot be there. Fortunately I got the results before I traveled to the team bubble.”
“I am doing relatively well. I am in isolation and focus 100% on my recovery”, continues Wild, who last year sprinted to victory in Wevelgem at the expense of Lorena Wiebes (second) and the Italian Letizia Paternoster (third) .
Earlier on Saturday, the team of former winner Marta Bastianelli, the Italian Alé BTC Ljublana, signed off due to several positive tests within the team.
The men also had a cancellation due to corona. Tiesj Benoot, the leader of Sunweb, turned out to be a close contact of a positively infected person and was quarantined. He does not show any corona symptoms, according to Sunweb.
Gent-Wevelgem for women starts on Sunday at 1.45 pm. The finish is after more than 140 kilometers around 5.30 pm. Ellen van Dijk and Amy Pieters, among others, appear at the start. Reigning world champion Anna van der Breggen and Annemiek van Vleuten are not present. The men start at 10 a.m. in Ypres and finish around 4 p.m. in Wevelgem.
– .
