This year's Giro d'Italia has been severely affected by illness and sickness
within the peloton, more so than at any other grand tour I can personally remember.
Amongst them was Briton Bradley Wiggins, the team Sky leader who was forced to
who was forced to withdraw before stage 13
with a chest infection.
Bad weather and a very stressful first week of racing has conspired against the
riders, and that shows no signs of easing
as we head into the second week.
We caught up with the head race doctor and some of the key staff behind the peloton
to find out exactly how sickness affects a grand tour.
During the race, a lot of people,
a lot of riders today asked for the doctor during
the race
to have support,
especially for the throat and
pulmonary problems
due to the bad weather we've had in Italy this year.
It's very, very, very hard conditions for the riders
we know we've got a hard stages like this, today and tomorrow
and after, the stage that is
20, 25km
is hard for all the peloton, and we have to manage many diseases like
a virus, everything like this
it's not a very good condition, to work in the rain, and we have to manage that
because we
have to perform in the big tour. But we'll see, we'll do our job
we just have to keep the riders' safety and all of that.
The riders are really sick after the bad weather conditions and some
riders needed to stop, that's what we've all seen.
As an example,
all our riders need to ask the team doctor what they can use
to relax, or to
avoid any more infection, but it's quite difficult, so there are no
other chances to ask the doctor if they can use this
medicine or not, and if not they he cannot allow it.
It is much worse than usual because
it's also cold and wet
and that is the worst conditions to ride
a stage of
the Giro d'Italia.
The problem with even a common cold in a race as demanding as the Giro
is that it can be almost impossible to shake off. This is what we did, an exam
during the race, when a rider comes over and says: "I cannot...
breathe, I cannot have any air",
the directeur sportif calls the team doctor:
"so I've got a product here, is this allowed or not?", and then it's "OK, this is what you can use."
But in other cases, there's no chance
so the riders need to suffer a bit, that's harsh
and as you can see, not every rider can survive here
so it's very difficult.
Whilst most riders will carry on regardless, the risks of continuing
are considerable, and that's why team Sky decided to send Brad home.
For the first time in Giro history there's a specialist ambulance on site, which allows
them to do x-rays, which reduces the time of diagnosis. GCN went inside
the ambulance.
We have done in this Giro already
21
x-ray examinations
and we spare
so much time that we
normally spend in the hospital
This is a simple car
that is
covered by lead
just because there must not be any radiation
that goes around. There is no other cycling race
that's ever had such
a unique x-ray unit.
The good news for the riders, though, is that recovery is indeed possible
with the right support behind them.