Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, as pro cycling teams enter their third season and the number of people infected by the Omicron variant surges further, Tour de France winner Tadej Pogachar and his team UAE Emirates are taking no chances against the virus They are not trying to.

Dr. Inigo San Milan, the team's performance director, told Cycling News that the entire team is "fully" vaccinated and ready to follow the UCI's new "health pass."

Most teams met in large numbers for training camps in December and January, but several admitted to testing positive for COVID-19. Jumbo Visma, with which Pogachal's rival Primoš Roglic is affiliated, was forced to cancel its training camp early due to this one incident, as were AG2R-Citroen and Sport Vlaanderen Valoise. AG2R-Citën and Sport Vlaanderen Baloise also suffered an infected person.

UAE Team Emirates survived the camp without being infected with COVID-19, despite training in Spain, the same country as Jumbo Visma.

"We had a training camp in Spain for 12 days with 70-80 people and had antigen tests every 3 days and not one person was infected. Omicron was everywhere, so we knew we were in trouble," San Millán told Cycling News.

That there were zero positive cases was "amazing," he said.

"The team protocol was pretty strict. We had to test negative before entering the hotel, we had to wear masks at all times, and we had to stay inside the bubble. We were the only guests in the hotel and the staff was great. Perhaps if it had been a larger hotel with more guests, it would have been more difficult to control."

The example set by the UAE Team Emirates, with its high vaccination and low infection rates, is a proud goal for any group, but it also reflects broader success in cycling: according to the UCI, 82.5% of team members will be vaccinated by the end of 2021, and the UAE Team Emirates will be the first team in the world to be vaccinated by 2021, testing had a "very low positive rate," and although about 20% of team members tested positive for COVID, no one was hospitalized or infected with COVID for long distances.

With countries like France mandating vaccination, other countries enforcing COVID-19 pass rules, and the UCI enacting stricter rules, vaccination rates have undoubtedly increased further.

"You really have to give credit to the UCI and the cycling community for doing a great job and setting an example for the world," said St. Millan.

UAE Team Emirates and many other world teams are undoubtedly taking the pandemic more seriously than other sports, as cycling was one of the first sports to be hit by COVID-19 in the February 2020 UAE Tour.

UAE Team Emirates had several members infected with the virus: Fernando Gaviria and Max Richeze were quarantined in the UAE for several weeks and suffered "very mild" infections, while team osteopath Dario Marini, a 38-year-old healthy triathlete was hospitalized for nine days in the ICU with severe pneumonia, putting his life in danger.

San Millán watched as team members who tested positive were taken away from the hotel where Race Entertainment was being held by people in protective gear to an isolation facility. The entire ordeal was traumatic.

The risk of the disease disrupting the season and encountering COVID-19 in 2020 led the team to quickly introduce vaccination; UAE Team Emirates received the COVID-19 vaccine in January 2021 during a training camp in the UAE. The players were vaccinated with the Sinopharm vaccine, which is made in the traditional way using a weakened virus. All team members were then vaccinated with one of the vaccines recognized in the European Union, as required by the UCI's Health Pass.

As a researcher studying mRNA approaches to cancer treatment, he dismisses conspiracy theories surrounding the safety of these vaccines and says riders should not fear that the injections will harm their performance.

"Most people feel a little out of sorts for a day or two," he said, adding that the risk of contracting the virus is much greater.UAE Team Emirates carefully timed the injections for its riders at critical times so as not to interfere with training and racing. aligned.

"We have adapted our riders' schedules. Some got [their vaccinations] right after the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia. In the off-season, many pro cyclists are vaccinated or boosted.

By all accounts, the UAE Team Emirates approach is working: Pogachar won the Tour de France by more than five minutes over his nearest rival, won a bronze medal at the Olympics, won two monuments, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia He also won the UAE Tour, Tirreno-Adriatico, and the Tour of Slovenia, and was overall winner of the Tour of Slovenia.

Pogachar was not alone in his success. Joe Dombrowski won a stage at the Giro, Rafal Majka won a stage at the Vuelta a España, and Ryan Gibbons, Juan Sebastian Morano, and Diego Ulissi scored multiple wins. The team finished the season in fourth place in the UCI world ranking.

Globally, vaccination coverage against COVID is approaching 50%, but the new omicron form is spreading like wildfire even in areas with the highest vaccination rates. In most European countries, more than 70% have been vaccinated, but cases are still increasing. Vaccines appear to reduce the severity of the infection, but studies are divided on whether they reduce the rate at which symptoms linger, the feared "long covid."

San Milan says that although very rare, long COVID can be career-ending. He was part of a group that studied long-distance transporters of COVID, some of whom did not require hospitalization but had typical cases of prolonged health problems.

Some of the symptoms were indicative of impaired mitochondrial function. Mitochondria are the body's cellular engine, fueling athletic performance. Even though the possibility of contracting long COVID is rare, the effects can be devastating, especially if one has been immunized.

"This is a very bad virus," says St. Millan. 'It attacks many organs in the body, one of which is the heart. It can attack the lungs as well as the muscles and the brain."

"If not prevented, being such a long-distance operator can be career-ending. Even mild long-distance athletes cannot work well for months. It could ruin your entire season, and if you are in the process of finalizing your contract, it could affect your career. It is important to protect them well."

UAE Team Emirates was the earliest in the peloton to develop COVID, but it did not affect the players' abilities. Richeze and Gaviria were "very mild" and had no long-term effects.

"We have looked at them in terms of power numbers and training capacity and found no impact. But again, in our study, 25% (of the long-term residents) were healthy, had no complications, and had normal COVID progress. They were active people from Colorado who used to run marathons and triathlons, but now they can't even climb stairs and are exhausted 6 months later. We are seeing these severe, long-term effects in even very healthy people," he says.

A November 2021 study of college athletes showed that symptoms lasting longer than three weeks were rare, but not zero.

Professional cyclists are lucky to avoid COVID for long distances, he says.

"With other athletes, it can take weeks or months to get back to normal. I've never heard of anything like this on a World Tour team, but we were lucky. "