Inge van der Heijden tested positive for coronavirus before the race, affecting the start list for the elite women's road race at the Dutch national championships.

According to NOS, the former U23 cyclocross world champion, who just moved to the 777 team from CCC-Liv, is not symptomatic.

The positive test also means that two more riders will miss Saturday's race, as teammates Yara Kastelijn and Aniek van Alphen had cased the course with van der Heijden earlier in the week. In addition, sporting director Kamiel van den Berg, who led the reconnaissance, will not ride in the team car during the race.

The race also lost a fourth rider. Mascha Mulder (Group Hens-Maes Containers) announced that she would not start due to contact with a positive person; the 26-year-old was examined twice in accordance with pre-race health regulations, but did not start just to be safe.

"I was tested twice and they were negative, so I was fine to start. However, yesterday evening I received a call that she had been in contact with someone who tested positive after Wednesday's test.

"After consulting with the team and with our own guidance, we decided not to start according to the guidelines out of caution."

The Dutch women's road race will take place on Saturday afternoon on a 124.1 km course of 17 laps around a 7.3 km circuit, including a short VAM-berg climb.

A strong field includes current world champion Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott), previous world champion Anna van der Breggen (Boels Dolmans), and former world champion Marianne Foss (CCC-Live) The 2019 Dutch Champion Lorena Wiebes will be looking to defend her title in her first appearance for Team Sunweb