If you were drawing up a list of factors that could influence this year’s Giro d’Italia, Belgian cattle probably wouldn’t be one of them. But a herd of Walloon cows have, bizarrely, already had an impact on this year’s race, with manure on the roads at the Famenne Ardenne Classic believed to be behind a number of riders falling ill this week.
According to reports in Belgium, riders from several teams have experienced diarrhoea, abdominal pain, fever, and vomiting since taking part in the one-day race on Sunday, where cow dung may have been sprayed onto the riders and their bottles as they raced on wet roads.
While the source of the widespread illness has yet to be confirmed, staff at Lotto Intermarché have indicated that it is believed to have been caused by campylobacter, a type of bacteria found in animal intestines and responsible for gastrointestinal infections.
Campylobacter is the main cause of bacterial food poisoning in the UK, and most people suffering from the infection can take a week to recover – which isn’t great news if you’re about to start a three-week grand tour like the Giro.
Riders from the Alpecin-Premier Tech, Flanders-Baloise, VolkerWessels, and Van Rysel-Roubaix teams have fallen ill after the rain-soaked race, while three Lotto Intermarché riders were taken to hospital.
One of those Lotto riders, Liam Slock, has been forced to withdraw from the Giro, with 22-year-old British rider Joshua Giddings called up at the last minute to replace him.
Meanwhile, Arnaud De Lie, who won the Famenne Ardenne Classic, and Milan Mentin both missed the Giro’s team presentation on Wednesday evening, but are expected to start Friday’s opening stage, with Mentin only arriving in Bulgaria last night. That meant only five of Lotto’s eight-man line-up appeared on stage during the team presentation in Burgas.
“He’s here but not here,” Lotto Intermarché sports director Maxime Bouet told CyclingPro.net when asked about De Lie’s condition.
Bouet confirmed that De Lie, the Belgian team’s leader at the first grand tour of the season and rather ironically nicknamed ‘the bull’, showed no symptoms after winning Sunday’s race, but started feeling nauseous on the flight to Bulgaria.
“Half the peloton is ill,” the sports director continued. “There was a problem at the Famenne Classic where a lot of riders fell ill, and several riders ended up in hospital. Arnaud is here in Bulgaria, and we hope he’ll start to feel better before Friday. He’s not feeling well, but his participation in the Giro is not compromised at this stage.
“We’ve heard that a few teams were impacted, including going to hospital. In two teams, it’s the same thing – digestive problems, diarrhoea, vomiting. Some riders from our team went to hospital for treatment, and I think it was the same thing for other teams.
“For us, the priority is the health of the riders above all. That’s why we quickly replaced Liam Slock with Joshua Giddings. Milan had symptoms at the Famenne Classic, but he’s much better and he’s going to come to Bulgaria this evening.
“We preferred to leave Arnaud rest in the hotel because he still has a bit of fever. And we didn’t want to infect other teams either, that’s important. Health is the priority for us.”
12 thoughts on “Cow dung blamed as diarrhoea, fever, and vomiting hit the peloton ahead of the Giro d’Italia”
We are repeatedly told that farting cows are responsible for global warming. Now bovines poison pro cyclists who ride on rural roads. One may only be surprised that this doesn’t happen more often. Think of gravel races across cattle counties in America, or Tro Bro Leon in Brittany.
One can’t wait to hear the UCI bureaucratic action plan to tackle this issue. Indoor racing during rainy days?
Belching, not farting.
Cattle dung probably does cause illness more often than you think. Maybe it is worse in pro cycling because of the extreme stress the riders place on their immune systems and the close proximity of riders within their teams.
The problem isn’t confined to rural roads either. On my ride this morning, I noticed high concentrations of pigeon droppings on the road under every street lamp.
Maybe it can be argued that such exposure is good for your immune system?
Cattle dung probably does cause illness more often than you think
Not at all. I think such illness occurs about as often as I think it does. Faeces are full of bacteria, viruses, parasitic worm eggs and probably fungal spores also, and if you cycle through any sort of mud it appears on your water bottle. That’s why they invented these- keen observers will note that there’s something missing! That’s because the white plastic fell to pieces as soon as I found them in the No Man’s Land over the kitchen cupboards. The good news is that these covered caps are made of proper forever plastic and screw straight onto all the other bottles that I have, so I’m going to start using them to prevent haemolytic uraemic syndrome from E. coli O 157. I don’t know why Nalgene used crappy plastic for the body of the bottles
Dah, dah!
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Those bottles look more of a health risk than a bit of random cow muck.
@MaxiMinimalist … it’s a long running issue in cyclocross … where they literally race across Belgian cow pastures. But, it’s not just cows (research how to prepare chicken breast or cantaloupe) and it’s not poison … getting any scrap of shit in your system is likely to cause you problems with bacteria.
Floaty light and aero full length mudguards then.
It’s the only way…
No too aero, else the UCI will disqualify vanSchip again.
…someone else could be using them but they still DQ him for ~reasons~
Those bottles look more of a health risk than a bit of random cow muck…
Only for those of you who haven’t worked out that you’re supposed to use the covered nozzle at the top, not lick the cow faeces off the sides
Mmm, I smell bullshit