Soudal - Quick-Step doctor doesn't fear epidemic in the Giro d'Italia peloton: "When you're tired you're just more susceptible to illness"
CyclingWednesday, 15 May 2024 at 13:15
The rest day in the Giro has reduced the number of riders in the race quite significantly: no fewer than 4 riders did not start on Tuesday with stage 9 winner Olav Kooij, Max Kanter, Ethan Vernon and Marius Mayrhofer as victims. And striking: all four suffer from similar symptoms.
Should we worry about a virus floating around in the peloton? "I don't think so," Toon Cruyt, team doctor at Soudal - Quick-Step, evaluated in an interview for Sporza.
"It has been a very intensive first week and the riders are already a bit tired. Quite a few have respiratory problems. We also had someone with bronchitis ourselves, but fortunately he responded well to the antibiotics."
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Could spring pollen play a role? "Just because you see a lot of fluff flying doesn't mean it's worse," says Cruyt. "And most riders who are allergic to pollen already take something preventive."
Cruyt therefore does not believe that there is an epidemic in the peloton. "I think it's about individual problems. When you're tired you're just more susceptible to illness."
However, it has to be said that over the past few days alone some of the Giro's main figures in Cian Uijtdebroeks, Olav Kooij and Alexey Lutsenko - to name a few - have all abandoned the race due to falling ill.
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- I think it’s pretty weird under the circumstances and won’t be surprised if one day we discover some unmentioned detail that triggered this. In the meantime, hope he finds himself elsewhere.Mistermaumau08-05-2025
- Reusser is amazing too. More than just a TT specialist.mobk08-05-2025
- Tough to beat her on the long climbs if she has a team that will bring her fresh to the bottom of the climbsmobk08-05-2025
- Er, building up a 20 second gap in less than a km against the best is not exactly nothing, must have been at least 10% faster. Peletons also reel in breakaways but if they don’t manage BEFORE the end the reeling in doesn’t really mean much does it. She did exactly the right think, destroyed the others’ chances of catching her with a massive attack.Mistermaumau08-05-2025
- Demi must be so happy to now be on a team that works for her, and not against her. I think that if she and the team get their tactics dialed in, she could prove to be unstoppable this year.
santiagobenites08-05-2025 - I wouldn't call 24 seconds destroyed. At the end she was suffering and Reusser was slowly reeling her backabstractengineer08-05-2025
- I dont expect much from them top 5 maybeabstractengineer08-05-2025
- G does not strike me as a tactical support but more of a strategic one. His tactics were follow train and opponents and sprint at the endabstractengineer08-05-2025
- These pro forma statements, always the same, no wonder most people don’t get enthusiastic about follow cycling in depth.Mistermaumau08-05-2025
- Go, Yatesy!! And Felix!mhfrvz08-05-2025
It depends on the virus, the one I just had knocked me out 3 weeks, it first it seemed it was light and would be mostly over in 2-3 days. As usual when congested after a few days I did an easyish ride to help clear things out but it didn’t help in the end, made things worse maybe. Then it was up and down with fake fever (no temp) plus a whole range of unusual symptoms, no influenza, no covid. Seems quite widespread this spring but recovery time varies enormously.
As the doc rightly says, if you’re training or racing, you become VERY susceptible to viruses, they get a foot in the door to multiply whilst the immune system is weakened and rebuilds.