“Covid is going around like crazy" according to Jumbo-Visma director Richard Plugge

Jumbo-Visma's Giro d'Italia preparation was thrown into chaos by the positive covid tests of Tobias Foss and Robert Gesink. According to the team's Assistant Sports Director Richard Plugge, the coronavirus is still running rampant in the peloton.

“Covid is going around like crazy," he tells NOS. “In Romandie quite a lot of riders got infected and also got sick. For Robert Gesink and Tobias Foss that is terrible. They've put in so much effort to be at the starting line here and they just got sick. It goes around that fast.”

Less than ideal preparation for Primoz Roglic's quest for the Maglia Rosa to lose two of his key domestiques so soon to the beginning of the Giro d'Italia, Jan Tratnik and Jos van Emden have both also had to withdraw with the latter also a covid casualty.

“Hopefully RCS will do a lot about it. For example, you now see a lot of audience around. I understand very well that people think it's over, but it really makes riders sick," Plugge says of the ongoing covid crisis. "And if you're sick, you just have to get off course. That would be a shame, especially for the contenders.”