“Bahrain Victorious loses Giro d’Italia hope Gino Mäder due to positive COVID-19 test”

Thursday, May 4, 2023 at 09:33

Bad news for Bahrain Victorious in the run-up to the Giro d’Italia. The team has to do without Gino Mäder in the coming weeks. The Swiss has tested positive for the corona virus. Yukiya Arashiro replaces him.

Mäder was to become one of the defining figures of Bahrain Victorious in the mountains. The team still has plenty of irons in the fire with classification leader Jack Haig, Damiano Caruso and Santiago Buitrago, but the Swiss’s dropping out is a big blow to the sporting bill. Mäder was already fifth in Paris-Nice this year. In the Tour de Romandie, the last preparation race for the Giro, he finished fifteenth.

It is not the first time that Mäder has suffered a corona infection at a very bad time. The 26-year-old climber was also unable to appear at the start of the Tour de France last year due to COVID-19.

Corona danger?
In recent weeks, the corona virus seems to be on the rise again in the peloton. Earlier this week, Tobias Foss and Robert Gesink, two important forces of Jumbo-Visma, had to drop out due to a corona infection. “Of course this is a concern, but not only for us”, sports director Arthur van Dongen is clear.