Tadej Pogachar has admitted that his UAE team Emirates has a COVID-19 outbreak and is trying to avoid contracting COVID-19 by honing his form in the Tour de Slovenia in the two weeks before the Tour de France begins.

Pogachar is a strong contender for the 2022 race after winning in 2020 and 2021, but if he is infected with COVID-19 now, it will be virtually impossible for him and others to line up at the start of the Tour de France in Copenhagen on Friday, July 1. impossible.

Pogachar, 23, contracted COVID-19 in January but recovered quickly, winning the UAE Tour and enjoying a successful spring campaign. He was one of the first riders vaccinated in early 2021 with the UAE Team Emirates team and reportedly received a second vaccination last summer.

"It's pretty stressful, but there's nothing we can do. I'm in quarantine and trying to survive without any more infections," Pogachar told Sio1 TV before the start of the third stage of the Tour of Slovenia.

COVID-19 infections exploded at the Tour de Suisse on Thursday and Friday, with Marc Hirschi and Diego Ulissi testing positive; UAE Team Emirates, Alpecin Phoenix, and Bahrain Victorious also decided to withdraw from the race.

UAE Team Emirates also confirmed that Mikkel Bjarg, a key domestique of Pogachar in the Tour de France, was diagnosed with COVID-19 overnight during the race in Slovenia. Bjarg's roommate and expected Tour de France domestique, Vegard Stake Rengen, was sent home as a precautionary measure.

Pogachar tested negative before stage 3 and is expected to win the Tour of Slovenia.

"The situation in Switzerland is terrible and our team will not start today in Switzerland," Pogachar said.

"Here at the Tour of Slovenia, Mickael [Bjarg] was positive, so he and his roommate went home. It's pretty stressful, but nothing can be done."

Pogachar went on to win the 2020 Tour de France, which was postponed to September due to the COVID-19 epidemic, and dominated the race in 2021.

However, positive tests for COVID-19 at the Tour de Suisse and Tour of Slovenia have called into question the composition of the UAE Team Emirates squad for the 2022 Tour de France Ineos Grenadiers and Jumbo- Visma, among many other teams, are in a similar position.

"Unfortunately, like many other teams, we have seen a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases. The affected riders have been fully tested and their symptoms are currently mild," said Adrian Rotunno, the team's medical director

.

"Since the rider who was rooming with the positive patient is considered a high-risk contact, we decided it was best for the health of the rider, the team, and the community to let them leave as well."

." It is unfortunate, but the reality is that the virus is still with us as a society." "We are monitoring our players regularly to be as careful as possible."