At least one team has been forced to change their Giro d’Italia lineup late after riders fell ill after racing in Belgium last weekend, possibly because of manure.
Multiple riders who competed in the Famenne Ardenne Classic on Sunday, including a number expected to start the Giro, have been afflicted by a sudden illness that’s suspected to have been caused by bacteria from cow pats on the Belgian roads flicking up onto the drinking bottles of the riders.
Just five of team Lotto–Intermarche‘s full complement of eight riders attended the Giro race presentation in Bulgaria yesterday, with three riders having been hospitalised after suffering symptoms that included stomach pains, diarrhoea, fever and vomiting, as confirmed by the Belgian team.
The sickness is believed to have been caused by the ingestion of a bacteria called campylobacter, which is found in cow dung – a substance that was present in abundance on the rain-splattered rural roads of the Ardennes at the weekend.
Top riders afflicted by the cow-pat pox include 24-year-old Belgian Arnaud De Lie, who won the Famenne Ardenne Classic, and had been expected to lead Lotto’s team at the Giro. De Lie thought he’d escaped the infection but then fell ill while flying to Bulgaria. “He’s not feeling well, but his participation in the Giro is not compromised at this stage,” a spokesperson for the team told The Guardian.
However, Lotto Intermarché sporting director and former pro rider Maxime Bouet was putting a slightly less positive spin on the situation. “Half the peloton is ill,” the Frenchman was quoted to have said on the team website.
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