There's serious enough thought being given to cancelling the Giro that Wout Van Aert shifted his spring program from a focus on prepping for that race to more early classics. His team entered him into tomorrow's Omloop Het Niewsblad, the first big Belgian classic, earlier this week. He's not raced on the road since he almost lost his leg in the TdF last year, but he did the cyclocross worlds.
Van Aert, who placed fourth at the Cyclo-cross World Championships earlier this month, was due to make his road racing season debut with a trio of Italian one-day races: Strade Bianche on March 7, GP Industria & Artigianato on March 8, and Milan San-Remo on March 21.
However, all three races are currently at risk due to the spread of coronavirus, with Italy seeing an alarming number of cases over the past week. More than 300 people there have tested positive for the novel virus, and 11 have died as a result.
The worst affected area is the Lombardy region in the north of the country, with a number of towns currently on lockdown. That puts Milan-San Remo at particular risk, given it starts in Milan and works its way down through Lombardy before tracking along the Ligurian coast.
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/van-aert-parachuted-into-omloop-het-nieuwsblad-amid-coronavirus-fears/
