Nearly four months after the troubles of COVID-19, Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) said he is ready to race at the Vuelta a Burgos.

Along with Mark Cavendish (Bahrain-Merida), Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ), and Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Gaviria is expected to be among the leaders in the group sprint in Burgos.

"I'm feeling good," Gaviria told a small group of journalists the weekend before the race, which starts Tuesday. 'The last few months haven't been easy. Training was difficult, not knowing what races were coming up, and I lost a little motivation."

"But fortunately, the training is going well and I'm getting through this period in good shape."

"I'm very happy with the way things are going."

Gaviria said he is looking forward to the next race.

Easier said than done, perhaps, considering that Gaviria himself contracted the COVID-19 virus during a tour of the UAE and was forced to undergo a lengthy quarantine period; after receiving his initial clearance on March 26, he returned to Colombia on April 8 on a humanitarian flight with 55 of his countrymen.

His battle with the coronavirus is far from over, and Gaviria is not sure if the virus has left any long-term effects on him, but he is sure it has not.

"It would be wrong to rule everything out, but at the moment I feel normal on the bike, which is a relief. When I started training I had no idea how I would feel in this situation. But now I'm taking things calmly and I'm sure I needed to start racing again, so I just hope it works out."

Gaviria recognizes that although he had to go to the hospital in the UAE for a fever, he was lucky anyway, as the coronavirus he contracted had relatively minor effects.

"The fever went down in two days and I didn't feel anything after that. I had no coughing fits, no lung pain, nothing. I had to wait a very long time before the tests came back negative, but in hindsight it was important that I felt normal during that time. The team was also from my home country, so I could count on the support of my home country. They were there for everything."

Upon returning to Colombia, Gaviria faced a further period of quarantine at a friend's home in Bogota to be 100% sure that he would not endanger his family.

"It was the least I could do for them," he recalls.

"But by then I was at the end of the process.

On an emotional level, Gaviria recognizes that, individually, putting on a race bib in Burgos on Tuesday morning would feel significant, seeing as how he developed COVID-19 and how his sport came to a halt.

"There was a long period of time when cycling was not so important. It is no secret that the coronavirus has claimed a huge number of victims, which is very unfortunate.

"But on a personal level, it is very satisfying for me now to be able to wear a racing number. I feel the same adrenaline as when I first turned pro. I don't know what the conditions will be like or what the race will be like. But what I do know is that we all need to get back to racing."

For Gaviria, he plans to follow up his success in Burgos with repeat rides in Milan-San Remo and the Giro d'Italia.

In 2019, he won the first week stage of the Giro in somewhat tense circumstances after fellow sprinter Elia Viviani was demoted, but then had to abandon the race due to a knee injury.

While determined to win in Burgos, Gaviria said, "It's natural to expect surprises. Everything could change," he warned."

But in any case, as an athlete and whatever the outcome, Gaviria said he feels it is time to give the public a chance to disconnect from their daily lives, albeit for a short time. [Cycling has never stopped being cycling, and all we can do is show that we are lucky to be cyclists and help people stop talking and thinking about the virus and start talking about the sport again, if only for a while. [That way, even if only for a few hours, people can forget about these tough times."

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