Giulio Ciccone withdraws from Trek-Segafredo’s Giro d’Italia team due to persistent Covid-19 symptoms and positive test

Trek-Segafredo team leader Giulio Ciccone is out of the 2023 Giro d'Italia due to persistent Covid-19 symptoms and a recent positive test. The Italian has won three stages on the Giro in previous years and briefly wore the Tour de France yellow jersey after a climb to La Planche des Belles Filles. Ad A mountain specialist, Ciccone was also the Giro's top climber in 2019 and recently beat Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel to a summit finish in Catalonia.

Vuelta a ValenciaVolta a la Comunitat Valenciana highlights: Ciccone wins Stage 2 to assume overall lead02/02/2023 AT 17:39 The 28-year-old had been pegged as the leading rider for his team in the May 6-28 bike race around Italy alongside 2019 world champion, Denmark's Mads Pedersen. GIven his recent form; he finished second overall in the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, he took the Orange jersey for the Points classification in the same race, and finished fifth in the Tirreno–Adriatico and fifth in La Fleche Wallonne, before recently riding to seventh in the Volta a Catalunya. Ciccone was devastated to miss out on his home race.

He said: «Giving up the Giro breaks my heart. I can’t find any other words to describe my feelings right now. I would have faced my favourite race after the best start to a season of my career.

I would have started from home, from my Abruzzo; a historic event, even unique. Everything was perfect and then… I mean, it feels absurd. I have to swallow a bitter pill and the thought of what I could have done in this Giro will be in my mind for a long time.» Trek-Segafredo fires Antonio Tiberi for killing a cat in San Marino Remco Evenepoel reflects on career-defining switch to cycling from football Annemiek van Vleuten still has targets in her last