Vincenzo Nibali will miss this week's Vuelta a Andalucía Lucicrista del Sol due to a positive test for COVID-19.

Nibali, who was scheduled to race with his new Astana Cazacustan teammates Miguel Angel Lopez, Alexey Lutsenko, and fellow Italian Valerio Conte, will spend time in isolation until he returns to training.

"I will hear from the team later about his new race program," Astana Kazakstan said on Twitter when announcing that he would miss the five-stage race starting Wednesday.

In accordance with UCI medical protocol, Nibali will have to undergo a series of heart and lung checks before being allowed to race again; according to the UCI, the vaccination rate (riders and staff) within the team is 97%.

On Monday, Trek-Segafredo's Toms Skujņš revealed that he will miss the Volta Ao Algarve in Portugal due to a positive result in a pre-trip rapid test. On Friday, Richard Kalapas of Ineos Grenadiers tested positive for COVID-19 while competing in the Tour de la Provence and immediately retired from the French stage race.

Despite high vaccination rates, the peloton has been hit by the Omicron COVID-19 variant, disrupting pre-season training camps, and race schedules. Peter Sagan missed 17 days of training with his Total Energies teammates in January, and the Jumbo Visma team closed its training camp due to the outbreak.

Jumbo Visma and Bike Exchange Jayco cancelled their participation in Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana due to a positive patient outbreak. The Movistar team removed only the two riders who tested positive, a week after Alejandro Valverde was unable to ride his home race, the Vuelta Ciclista a la Region Murcia weekend, and the new gravel race, Clasica Jaen Paraiso Interior He was forced to miss the race because he was unable to race the Vuelta Ciclista a la Region Murcia and the new gravel race, Clasica Jaen Paraiso Interior.