Sam Bennett has said he has no way of knowing how he contracted Covid-19, which has forced him out of the race, but said the risks of exposure were many despite taking all the precautions he could to protect himself.
The Irishman is just the last rider forced out of the event, with teams announcing new cases almost every day.
“Even when I got here, I brought hand sanitiser with me everywhere before and after the stages. I wore my mask on the team bus when we were already in a bubble. I wouldn’t even sign autographs for people. I was so careful,” he said in his Irish Independent Diary.
“Looking back, there is no way of knowing where I got it. We had two flights mid-race. Two buses filled with riders. I got changed in a tent on a mountain top with 80 riders straight off their bikes with no masks.
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“There were cleaners in hotels coughing and spluttering and not wearing masks. On the climbs, people were so close that you could smell their breath as they roared encouragement at us. It could have been all of these things or none of them. It’s futile trying to blame anyone, but it’s very disappointing.”
The Irish Bora-hansgrohe rider said he asked for an extra test yesterday morning, before the stage 10 TT, as he had begun to feel slightly unwell and “sluggish”. But when a staff member told him the result was positive, he thought they were “having a laugh”.
Even when the result was confirmed he continued getting ready for his TT as he was hopeful a further test would show his viral load was low enough to allow him continue in the race. However, that was not the case at the Carrick-on-Suir man was forced out.
It was a big blow for him as he had won two stages and looked in a great position to compete for, and likely win, the points classification. He added he felt he needed a Grand Tour to bring on his form, after an injury-hit season last year, and could see his condition was improving rapidly in recent stages.
“Normally, with fatigue on a Grand Tour, your peak numbers start to go down but mine were getting better,” he said. “At the intermediate sprints and even when attacking stupidly at the start yesterday, they were building. In big jumps. Although the virus must have been in my system then, I was still getting better.”
