João Almeida will not start today's stage 18 of the Giro d'Italia after a positive Covid-19 test result means he plays no further part in the race with just four days remaining.
It appears Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) woke during the night with a severe sore throat and so the team's medical staff decided to test him for Covid-19, with that test proving positive.
“We are of course very disappointed, because João and the team did an excellent job”, said team sports director Mauro Gianetti. “Our goals were the podium and the youth jersey and we were still competing to achieve both.
"It's bad news, but this is the reality we've been living in for two years now. We have to accept it and we have to move on. The most important thing now is that Joao recovers quickly."
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The 23-year-old rider, from Portugal, was sitting 4th overall, though his chances of making the final podium had suffered a big set-back yesterday when he lost time to Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers), Jai Hindley (Bora-hansgrohe) and Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious).
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Almedia was 1:54 down on race leader Carapaz after yesterday's stage, when he lost 1:10 to the Ecuadorian and to Hindley. Yesterday was the first stage the top three put significant time into him as Almeida had worked hard to ride the climbs at his own tempo and limited his losses very well whenever he was dropped.
Almeida was tipped to make up a lot of time on the top three in the final stage TT in Verona on Sunday. However, the gap between him and Carapaz and Hindley - who are 1st and 2nd and separated by just three seconds - had grown to the extent even a career best TT ride from Almeida probably would not have overhauled them.
Landa, who is 3rd overall, was closer to Almeida in the GC, just 49 seconds separating them. If Almeida had managed to contain Landa over the remaining climbs, tomorrow and Saturday, he had a chance of overhauling Landa in the TT and making the final podium.
Now that Almeida is out of the Giro, former maglia rosa, Juan Pedro López (Trek-Segafredo), moves to the top of the young rider classification. The Spanish rider is 8th overall some 12:27 down on Carapaz.
López now has a lead of 6:46 on Thymen Arensman (Team DSM) in the young rider classification, with yesterday's stage winner Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious) in 3rd in the classification, at 7:48.
