2024 Tour de France GC favorite Tadej Pogačar dropped what some consider a bit of a bomb in an interview on Thursday. He said that he had contracted COVID-19 following his Giro win, but that he had recovered and is prepared for a strong race.
“About ten days ago, I had a Covid infection. It caused some doubts, but I’ve recovered well. Covid isn’t as serious anymore these days, especially not when you already had the virus in the past. It was over soon,” said the Slovenian in a press conference in Florence, Italy.
COVID-19 is, of course, still a serious illness, and symptoms affect everyone differently.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first report of the illness in the pro peloton. Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) recently announced that he will not start the Tour de France due to ongoing COVID-19 symptoms, and suddenly, it seems like the illness could be a factor yet again for this year’s Tour.
The Slovenian superstar went on to say that he only had to take one day off training with cold-like symptoms, and then took one day on the rollers and was back to training outdoors.
In a video, Pogačar almost shrugs it off. “I was a little bit sick; I had Covid, but I bounced back really fast, and preparations went super good, so I’m ready, and I’m really looking forward to seeing the legs on stage one and two and then the rest, I hope everything goes smooth and to the plan.”
Many are already taking precautions to avoid illness. Remco Evenepoel wore a face mask as he spoke to the media, saying, “It’s about being careful.”
Lidl-Trek also lost one of its ride leaders, Tao Geoghegan Hart, to COVID-19 after the Critérium du Dauphiné. Teammates Mads Pedersen and Giulio Ciccone also tested positive but have recovered enough to start the Tour.
Stage 1 might be a good indicator of who is at one hundred percent. The opening push will be full gas with 206 km from Florence to Rimini. There will be plenty of hills and screaming descents to see who will wear yellow first. Temperatures will also be in the 90s, so look for this to be a bit of a slap in the face for anyone not in top shape.
Micah Ling is a freelance writer who lives in the mountains of Colorado. She splits her free time between mountain biking and trail running.
