Italy to make riders returning from Sibiu Tour quarantine for 14 days

Italy will make their riders returning from the Sibiu Tour in Romania quarantine for 14 days, ruling dozens out of the season restart in the country next week.

Teams will have likely factored this in when deciding squads, the safest option seeming to be keeping star riders in the same country as much as possible during this precarious return to racing.

The Italian Health Minister announced the forced quarantine on Friday, which Gazzetta dello Sport said would affect 38 Italian riders who competed in Romania, who would be unavailable for selection if their team was involved in some of the Italian season restart. This includes Strade Bianche, Gran Trittico Lombardo, Milano-Torino and Milan-San Remo.

"I've just signed an ordinance ordering quarantine for those who have been in Romania and Bulgaria for the last 14 days," health minister Roberto Speranza Minister of Health said on Friday. "This measure is already in force for non-EU and non-Schengen countries. The virus is not defeated and continues to circulate. Great caution is still needed."

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Riders impacted include Davide Rebellin, who finished eighth overall riding for Meridiana-Kamen, as well as a number of riders from Vini Zabù-KTM and Bardiani-CSF.

Romania and neighbouring Bulgaria have recently experienced a spike in coronavirus cases, forcing Mathieu van der Poel's Alpecin-Fenix to pull out of the Sibiu Tour in the days leading up to the race, while Gazprom RusVelo were unable to take part due to restrictions placed on Russians coming in to the country.

Elsewhere, the Spanish region of Catalonia has shut nightlife venues in an attempt to prevent a second wave of coronavirus after a spike in cases, as 500km to the west the Vuelta a Burgos gets ready to welcome a number of WorldTour teams this week.

The Brittany region of France also recently saw coronavirus cases soar as summer holidays resumed following lockdown, the R-value rising from 0.92 to 2.62 in just five days.

Within the region is Plouay, scheduled to hold the GP de Plouay next month, which will also host the European national championships around the same time as well as the French national championships the weekend before.