Dubai: UAE Team Emirates has announced that three of its riders - Sebastian Molano, Cristian Munoz and Camilo Ardila – would not be starting the second stage of the Vuelta a Burgos scheduled to be held later on Wednesday.
The team announced that the three Colombian riders had been in recent contact with a person who turned out to be positive for COVID-19 earlier this week.
As per the coronavirus protocol being laid down by the team and world governing body UCI, the three riders were immediately isolated and sent home where they will all undergo another test. The three riders had returned two negative tests in the days prior to the race.
Ardila, who turned 21 last month, had a successful season in 2019 while winning the overall title at the Giro Ciclistico d’Italia after winning the fourth and fifth stages of the race. He was also classified third overall at the under-23 Vuelta a Colombia after winning Stages 3 and 5.
The 24-year-old Munoz, who is with UAE Team Emirates for the second successive season, has been one of the consistent riders for the team, was fifth in the team time trial on the opening stage of the Tour Colombia, earlier this year.
Molano, one of the more experienced riders on UAE Team Emirates, won Stage 3 on the 2019 Tour Colombia and then started the new season strongly earlier this year after bagging the yellow jersey in the points classification in the same race after winning Stages 2, 3 and 5.
The Vuelta a Burgos that is scheduled to conclude on August 1, saw Austrian rider Felix Großschartner from the Bora-Hansgrohe team winning the opening stage by a full eight seconds late on Tuesday. Großschartner surged clear of the rest of the field on the sharp final incline to the Mirador del Castillo in the opening stage over 157kms.
Deceuninck-QuickStep’s João Almeida came in second, followed by Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Alex Aranburu (Astana).
