Several cyclists, including riders slated to start the Giro d’Italia on Friday, have fallen ill after a Belgian one-day race, with the probable culprit being something that’s hard to spin as a noble challenge: cow manure on the roads.
Three Lotto-Intermarché riders suffered abdominal pain, diarrhoea, fever, and vomiting, and were briefly hospitalized, the team reported from Bulgaria, where the Giro kicks off on Friday. Arnaud De Lie, the winner of Sunday’s Famenne Ardenne Classic and expected to lead the Belgian team at the Giro, initially seemed fine - until he felt nauseous on the flight to Bulgaria. “He’s not feeling well, but his participation in the Giro is not compromised at this stage,” the team said, though only five of Lotto’s eight riders made it to Wednesday’s race presentation.
According to Belgian broadcaster Sporza, other teams like Alpecin have also been affected, leading Lotto’s sporting director Maxime Bouet to declare: “Half the peloton is ill.” Lotto suspects the riders were contaminated by cow manure on the Ardennes course, with wet roads turning the race into an unintended fecal sprinkler. While the exact cause remains unconfirmed, campylobacter - a bacteria famous for ruining gastrointestinal tranquility - is the prime suspect.
In a separate incident that feels like piling on, vandals in Brussels damaged a commemorative stone slab honoring Belgian cycling legend Eddy Merckx, the five-time Tour de France winner now 80. The mayor of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, Benoît Cerexhe, expressed outrage, asking, “Who could want to attack an athlete, a symbol of our country?” The monument, inaugurated in 2019 when the Tour de France started in Brussels, will be repaired, and CCTV footage will be analyzed. Because apparently, even cycling icons aren’t safe from the kind of mischief that makes manure-related illnesses look almost dignified.