Joey Rosskopf will not compete in US Pro Road Race National Championship on Sunday due to COVID-19.
Rosskopf was forced to abandon Tour de Suisse last week after testing positive for the coronavirus halfway through the eight-day stage event. Rosskopf's absence is a big setback to the US-based ProTeam, as he contributed firepower to both the road race and time trial, winning the time trial national championship in 2018 and finishing fourth last year.“Obviously, it's a huge bummer to get COVID. So that'll take me out to Nationals, It's been a pretty, pretty bad year, with broken elbow surgery, then came back pretty well, broken ribs, kept racing through Swiss, then COVID. So it's been far from ideal.I mean, I'm always fired up for racing, when I'm healthy. So I still have the training, there's nothing holding me back there. I'll just be able to appreciate it all the more if I can get back to the start line healthy. There have been few instances of that this year.” said Joey.
“But you know, I've never had it. So it's probably just a matter of time. There's still no telling how I'll come back from it. A lot of guys have really been hindered by long-term fatigue. Just trying to do everything right and stay off the bike and rest for now, so that when I come back, I can start rebuilding and do it without just digging a hole. I'm always eager to race. So it's nice to have that temptation, at least, put to the side for a month.Yeah, I’m definitely as motivated as ever for the season, always pretty fired up to be racing. Even more, so this year. Hopefully, it can start in August. The team has set up an awesome race program for August and September. We got as many race days as we can handle, some really, really nice ones. So hope to be there participating in that. Yeah, just play it by ear, and try to recover first.” concluded Joey .
Following the guidance of our medical team and in line with UCI protocol, having returned a positive antigen test this morning, @joeyrosskopf did not take to the start of stage 5 at the #TourdeSuisse2022.#HumanPoweredHealth pic.twitter.com/Ah7SzDeZcC
— Human Powered Health (@HumanPwrdHealth) June 16, 2022