UAE Tour: Morkov cleared to race at Track Cycling World Championships after 167 coronavirus tests come back negative

Danish rider Michael Morkov – who left the UAE Tour early before riders were quarantined following suspected cases of soronavirus – has been cleared to race at the Track Cycling World Championships. The news comes as the Abu Dhabi health department announced that 167 tests carried out on people involved with the race have come back negative.

Late on Thursday, the final stages of the Tour of UAE were cancelled with The Abu Dhabi Sports Council explaining that the decision had been taken because two Italian “participants” had been diagnosed with Covid-19.

Race organisers later clarified that the ‘participants’ were two Italian staff members from a team, while a UCI statement on Friday said only that two cases of coronavirus were ‘suspected’ among staff members of one of the participating teams.

Teams and team staff were quarantined and tested for the virus in their hotels.

Morkov took part in the first four days of the UAE Tour but headed to Berlin for the Track Cycling World Championships before the quarantine was imposed.

The BBC reports that he was at the Berlin Velodrome on Thursday night to watch Denmark break the team pursuit world record on their way to gold.

"Obviously when I went to the velodrome and was watching the guys break the world record in the team pursuit, there were no coronavirus rumours," he said.

"Then I'm coming back to the hotel and we hear this rumour. I realised that I could be a potential carrier of the virus and obviously I was thinking about us hugging a hundred times over there."

Morkov said he had been, “feeling really guilty that I might have brought this virus to other people and team-mates."

He and his coach decided on Friday morning that he should remain in isolation. He spent the day training on his rollers and conducting telephone interviews.

However, in a statement today, the UCI has cleared Morkov to compete in Sunday’s Madison, an event he won in 2009.

A spokesperson said: "The rider present in Berlin is currently in excellent health, with no suspicious clinical signs, and we are also guaranteed that he has not contacted the two members of the management of a team participating in the UAE Tour, originally suspected of coronavirus."

The news comes as the Abu Dhabi health department confirmed that lab tests carried out on 167 people involved in the UAE Tour have come back negative.

In a statement the department said it was, “still monitoring the condition of the remaining cases of contacts, whom lab test findings will be available within the next few hours.”