Teams and races scramble as coronavirus sweeps cycling

Teams, race organisers and the UCI have all spent the week reeling from the effects of the coronavirus sweeping across the globe.

At the time of writing, the virus, which causes respiratory illness, had caused 110,000 people to fall ill and killed 3,500 across the world and has resulted in multiple races being cancelled or postponed. As it continues to spread it appears likely further cancellations could follow as it takes hold in Europe – the heart of the international racing scene.

Teams have all had to have a major rethink about how they operate. Multiple teams have withdrawn from racing altogether, including Ineos, who also suffered the sudden and unrelated death of key directeur sportif Nico Portal last week (see page 10); Mitchelton-Scott who have