In previous years, the Sibiu Cycling Tour has been overshadowed by concurrent races such as the Tour de France, Tour of Austria, and Tour of Lake Chintai. Since the race was cancelled in March due to a coronavirus outbreak, the Romanian stage race will be the first UCI 2.1-ranked event to be held there.

This status, plus the participation of WorldTour team Bora Hansgrohe and the Israeli Startup Nation, has brought a lot of attention to the race and transformed the Transylvanian city of Sibiu into the center of the cycling world for a few days this July.

Originally scheduled to take place from July 2 to 5, race organizers decided in June to wait for the lifting of travel restrictions and to allow time to properly implement all measures stipulated by the national health authorities and the UCI protocol on COVID-19 measures, which were first announced on June 19 the decision was made to postpone the race for three weeks.

As stipulated by the UCI protocol, all teams are required to conduct PCR tests on their riders and staff prior to the race, and everyone must complete a questionnaire on their symptoms twice a day.

Race organizations distributed hundreds of race-branded masks and many more disposable masks to volunteers, race staff, and media crews; in addition to the measures set forth by the UCI, race organization and media personnel who might come in contact with athletes, including the author, were also PCR tested

Team presentation.

During the team presentations, riders, team staff, media, and organizational staff were required to wear face masks at all times, and spectators were prohibited from entering the center of the town square in Piața Mare. In the prologue, the obligation to wear face masks was relaxed for riders and team staff, but all other members of the race bubble had to wear masks.

Cosmin Costea, route manager of the Sibiu Cycling Tour and coordinator of COVID-19, has been working closely with the national health authorities and the UCI in recent weeks to clarify and prepare race procedures for different situations, and has been working on the corona virus, and explained the procedures to follow in the event of a suspected case of the virus.

"PCR testing will be performed on athletes or staff. If the test is positive, the affected team or teams will be excluded from the race, or the race will be cancelled altogether. The athlete who tests positive will be hospitalized and his or her teammates will be quarantined. But that is the worst case scenario. Now that we have achieved our initial goal of getting the race started, I want a safe, healthy, and successful race."

Surprise winner of the prologue, Nicodemus Holler (Bike Aid), gave an example of the views of many Continental teams on the start list: "We have been coming to Sibiu since 2012 and wanted to race again. For a Continental team like ours, the additional cost of PCR testing is considerable, but additional measures are not that uncommon. In Africa and Asia we often encounter special situations.

The participation of two WorldTour teams in the Sibiu Cycling Tour, the first Romanian race, can be explained by the teams' eagerness to gain race days after the race resumed, despite the recent surge of COVID-19 cases in Romania Despite the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in Romania, their participation is also a statement of confidence in the race organization.

"In our team, we implemented not only the UCI protocols, but also internal measures," explained René Andre, sports director of the Israeli Startup Nation. 'The whole team was inspected on Saturday before we left for Romania.

"I feel the situation is being well managed by the organizers and I am not worried about that. It is an unprecedented situation for anyone, but I am not worried about racing in Sibiu."