Davide Ballerini about Giro d'Italia without his team's leader: “It is up to us to turn the page"

For Remco Evenepoel, the Giro d'Italia is over after nine days. The World champion tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday after the time trial to Cesena he won and has to go home. And that while Evenepoel was in the lead of the general classification. Soudal - Quick-Step now looks to move on.

His teammate Davide Ballerini also reacted to the withdrawal of his leader on the first rest day. "What can I say? It was a huge blow. So much work went into the preparation. So it is difficult to deal with this.” The Italian was brought as a domestique for the flat days, and has spent large kilometers towards the head of the peloton in the first week of the race.

However, Ballerini does not want to give up. “It is up to us to turn the page and stay motivated. The team will now do everything it can to win another stage,” the Italian rider tells Het Laatste Nieuws.

Evenepoel is currently the only rider of Soudal - Quick-Step who has tested positive for Covid however cases keep emerging daily, and lead to the risk of more GC contenders abandoning the race later on.