By Shane Stokes
EvoPro Racing co-founder and director Morgan Fox has revealed the contingency plan the team has drawn up as an option following the positive Covid test of Conn McDunphy, although he believes the original team selection have escaped contracting the virus.
McDunphy revealed on Friday that he had tested positive for Covid-19 with Fox confirming to stickybottle that he and several of the riders were on lockdown in the team’s Belgian base. He was cautiously optimistic that McDunphy would end up being the only rider with the virus, but explained the plan B in the event that others subsequently had positive tests.
“Everybody is negative for now,” he said on Friday. “One rider had a slight nasal blockage, but he’s been given the all clear. The plan B I have is to send the ZLM team to the Rás.
Advertisement
"It is a possibility that the team here could be forced to miss it, but obviously as the days go by it is less and less likely. I always wanted to put a full Irish team in the Rás this year, both in sprit of the race and also because it will mean the most to those riders.”
The team’s lineup for the race was confirmed earlier this week, with McDunphy, Tom Moriarty, Liam Curley, Mitchell McLaughlin and Cian Keogh those picked to be at the start next Wednesday.
“Conn was our main GC contender for the Rás, and we were backing him for the GC,” Fox explained. “But now we just have to focus on the other guys for the team. I have full confidence they can ride a good race. It is just unfortunate for Conn, it was one of his goals for the season leading into the national champs.
“He has had a lot of bad luck in the past two years with crashes and now getting Covid when Covid is being forgotten about. At this stage, I have been told that the rest of the guys are 90 percent certain to be okay, and tomorrow we will know with absolute certainty. Until the last moment we will keep the two teams apart so we can swap them over if needs be.”
The ZLM Tour is currently taking place. The EvoPro line-up includes two Irish riders, JB Murphy and Seán Nolan, as well as the Belgians Nathan Székely, Maarten Verheyen and Bryan Boussaer plus the American Eamon Franck.
However, Fox has the riders are Covid-free now and, on the basis of that, Moriarty, Curley, Keogh and McLaughlin will take the start at the Rás, adding JB Murphy will replace McDunphy.
Murphy rode well in track competitions last season and this year, including netting second in the scratch race and fourth in the Madison in last week’s Bahnen-Tournee track meet in Germany. The 22 year old was also in the day’s break on Friday’s third stage of the ZLM Tour, and could have a very good debut Rás.
McDunphy was main Rás plan
Had things gone to plan, McDunphy would have led the team next week and would have been in the running for overall honours in the race. Instead he was isolating from the other riders and counting down the days until he is able to re-emerge.
“Conn is obviously stuck in the other end of the house,” Fox said. “He’s not allowed out of his room. He’s texting ‘bring me up a coffee’. He is in good spirits and feeling a lot better today. He was feeling quite ill on Tuesday morning.
“It wasn’t clear at first what it was. Coming out of a stage race like the Ronde de l’Oise and then doing a one day race the next day, you might just be tired. But I am starting to think now that he was sick then.
“He wasn’t showing any symptoms, but during the race he was saying he didn’t feel great. We told him to pull out. We tested him the next morning, first with an antigen test and then with a PCR test done by the team doctor. It came back positive, so there were panic stations. We isolated him straight away.”
Related News
The team had been due to begin another stage race on Friday but made the decision to withdraw. “We were not sure how it would go down when we pulled out of the race,” he said. “We were due to start the Tour d’Eure-et-Loir but we let race organisation know that we were isolating and copied the UCI in. I got a response from the UCI doctor thanking us for being so careful.”
A request to that UCI doctor for an official comment on the Covid-19 situation on the peloton hasn’t been answered at the time of writing, but Fox believes that the government body could potentially have an upsurge in the virus on their hands.
“Things have got very lax here,” he said, speaking of the attitude towards the virus on the continent. “Everyone is sitting in restaurants with no masks on. I went to the chemist here and they said there is a dramatic increase in cases in last couple of weeks. She said they are not testing for the variants any more, just saying it is Covid.
“Quite a number of riders have come down sick with something since Ronde de l’Oise. We think it is possible there was a bit of transmission in the race. A number of teams racing after that have either pulled out or not raced beyond the first day. I have a feeling we could be seeing a resurgence of the virus.”
If that is indeed the case, Fox believes it could be down to a combination of an increased general laxity amongst the population, and also the reluctance of riders to get the booster.
“One rider on the team doesn’t believe in vaccinations. He is careful about the virus, but just doesn’t trust the vaccine. Even if I don’t necessarily agree with it I have to respect it. It is about freedom of choice too. So under the rules, we have to have a PCR test for him before every event.
“But with riders who are fully vaccinated and their booster is less than nine months old, they are able to race without PCR testing. And if their booster is more than nine months they can revert back to the PCR system.
“Some of them don’t want to get the booster. The thing is that there are so many races at the moment…the national championships are coming up and Tour de France is coming up. Personally I got more symptoms from the booster than I got from Covid. I get the impression from riders that they are saying ‘don’t get the booster’ as it affects your training for a few days.
“I think what is happening is that riders are under such pressure to race and to be selected for the Tour and to be on form for the national championships that they are considering the option to have three or four days of feeling poorly versus the option of going for a PCR test. But it is catch 22 – you are putting yourself at the risk of catching Covid versus not being on form because you got the vaccine too close to a race.”
Fox said that the team is being careful around the virus. He named two measures they are taking in relation to the Rás Tailteann in order to stay as safe as possible.
“We are going to avoid airports. We will take the ferry home,” he explained. “And we have booked AirBnbs for the Rás, we are not staying anywhere near the race.”
As regards McDunphy, Fox said that both the national rules and the team’s own caution will mean that the rider will be out of action for the immediate future.
“In Belgium those who test positive are on red alert for seven days, then following three days they are on amber alert. The country is back to a seven day isolation period, then three days being very careful, wearing masks.
“Conn will take his time to get back to racing. There is too much strain on the system after Covid. I had good chat with the UCI doctor about it. One of the big concerns is about a rapid return to competition, as scientific evidence is showing that it can be bad for the rider.
“I told the UCI doctor that I didn’t want to take chances with Conn and would rather he waits and then targets the national championships. There is a big variance with riders with how they feel after testing positive. Some recover quickly while some are still tired. It’s better to be cautious.”
