The Giro d’Italia woke up this Thursday with a health novelty: one of the candidates for the general title of the race withdrew due to a positive for covid-19.
This is Joao Almeida, a member of the UAE Team Emirates, who was in fourth place in the general classification. The Portuguese had lost just over a minute on Wednesday against leader Ríchard Carapaz.
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UAE confirms the positive of Joao Almeida
“True true. it is coronavirus. It’s bullshit. He wasn’t feeling too good last night and this morning we ran internal tests. Now we will do the PCR but the rapid test was positive. He’s out of the running. He has mild symptoms, so the most important thing is his health, that he recovers well”, confirmed the manager of UAE, Mauro Gianetti, in statements to ‘Velonews’.
Almeida is a teammate of Colombian Fernando Gaviria, who this Thursday will have his last chance to obtain a stage victory, on a route that favors him. Gaviria has tested positive for covid-19 three times.
However, Gianetti gave a piece of calm on the rest of the team. “We tested all the runners, but he (Almeida) is the only positive one,” declared.
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Almeida lost third place overall to Spaniard Mikel Landa after the seventeenth stage. The Portuguese confessed that he had not felt well.
Almeida had not felt well on Wednesday
“I felt like I hadn’t recovered 100 percent from yesterday’s (Tuesday) stage, which was a very tough day, so I could understand that my legs weren’t like they always were,” Almeida said. “I was wondering if it was just me or the others too, but apparently it was just me.”he added.
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