Remco Evenepoel heads home from Giro d'Italia after positive COVID-19 test

Remco Evenepoel leaves the Soudal-QuickStep team hotel and the Giro d'Italia following his COVID-19 positive
Remco Evenepoel leaves the Soudal-QuickStep team hotel and the Giro d'Italia following his COVID-19 positive (Image credit: Wout Beel/Soudal-QuickStep)

After testing positive for COVID-19 on Sunday evening, Giro d'Italia race leader Remco Evenepoel started the long journey home by car from Italy to Belgium on Monday morning.

The world champion won Sunday's stage 9 time trial – albeit by a smaller margin than expected – and later complained of a blocked nose in the post-stage press conference. Three and a half hours later, a routine COVID-19 test – taken by all Soudal-QuickStep team members as part of intra-team precautions – turned up a positive result for the virus.

Dani Ostanek
Senior News Writer

Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, joining in 2017 as a freelance contributor and later being hired full-time. Before joining the team, they had written for numerous major publications in the cycling world, including CyclingWeekly and Rouleur.

Dani has reported from the world's top races, including the Tour de France, Road World Championships, and the spring Classics. They have interviewed many of the sport's biggest stars, including Mathieu van der Poel, Demi Vollering, and Remco Evenepoel. Their favourite races are the Giro d'Italia, Strade Bianche and Paris-Roubaix.

Season highlights from the 2024 season include reporting from Paris-Roubaix –  'Unless I'm in an ambulance, I'm finishing this race' – Cyrus Monk, the last man home at Paris-Roubaix – and the Tour de France – 'Disbelief', gratitude, and family – Mark Cavendish celebrates a record-breaking Tour de France sprint win.