Giro d’Italia 2020 – ‘We need to have the courage to go on’ – Race director Vegni remains defiant

ByEurosport

Published 15/10/2020 at 19:42 GMT

Mauro Vegni has repeated his desire for the Giro d’Italia to continue after EF Pro Cycling suggested for the race to be stopped early in the wake of the rising coronavirus threat.

Giro d’Italia race director Mauro Vegni called on cycling and the community "to have the courage to go on" – just hours after it was revealed that EF Pro Cycling had called for the race to be shortened.

Eurosport broke the story that EF Pro Cycling sent a letter to their fellow teams, race organisers RCS and governing body the UCI suggesting the race is stopped at the second rest day.

That proposal has already been dismissed by the UCI, while EF Pro Cycling chief Jonathan Vaughters told Eurosport his team “were not threatening to leave the race” but that it “runs the risk of just sort of ending one day randomly”.

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But Vegni, who has already played down the coronavirus threat to the peloton after two teams withdrew earlier in the week, defended the measures already in place at the Giro.

• Exclusive: EF Pro Cycling call for Giro to be stopped early
• 'We recommend the Giro be stopped early' – Bombshell letter from EF Pro Cycling

Vaughters exclusive: 'We’re not threatening to leave the race'

"These are the same measures that were used in the other races, so I don’t see why the Giro should be seen as being worse than the others," he told reporters after the finish on Stage 12.

"On the first rest day we had eight positives. How many were there in other places? We’re in October, the trend is going upwards. Today there were almost 9,000 cases [in Italy] so obviously there’s a bit more stress than there was in August.

"But I repeat: this virus isn’t something we just discovered today. It’s a virus that exists and one that we’ll probably have to fight against all next year too.

"We need to have the courage to go on: not just in cycling, we need to go on as a community. We have to fight with our heads held high, looking ahead."

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Under EF Pro Cycling’s suggestion, the race would finish after Sunday’s stage to Piancavallo.

Those plans would leave rookie Joao Almeida (Deceuninck–Quick-Step) needing to survive just three more days in the maglia rosa to stage a huge upset – although the GC order is likely to be shaken up in Saturday’s individual time trial and Sunday’s trip to the mountains.

Team Jumbo-Visma and Mitchelton-Scott have already pulled out of the race due to positive tests for Covid-19.

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