The full team will be absent from the start line of Sunday's Tour de Flanders after Israel Premier Tech announced its withdrawal from the race.

On Friday morning, the team announced that all riders and staff in Belgium must be considered close contacts of the two COVID-19 positive riders. With the illnesses and injuries already on the team, Sunday's race was not possible.

On Wednesday at Dwars door Vlaanderen, the team started with only three riders after Guillaume Boivin and Jente Biermann were delayed due to illness. On the morning of the race, Sepp Vanmarcke, leader of the Cobblestone Classic, spoke of a "funeral-like atmosphere" within the team. Belgian Sepp Vanmarcke was recovering top form after falling ill earlier this month.

In addition to missing the Tour of Flanders, Israel Premier Tech will also miss next Wednesday's Scheldeprij.

"This is a very unfortunate situation and we are very disappointed that we have to withdraw from the Ronde van Vlaanderen," said team manager Kjell Carlstrom.

"This decision is not taken lightly, but at this stage we feel this is our only option. It is no secret that the majority of our riders have been temporarily out for the past few weeks due to illness and crash injuries, including Covid-19."

"There are very few healthy riders who can make the starting line right now. However, they are now approaching and we have made this decision out of respect for the race and the rest of the peloton; it is our duty of care to the other teams not to willingly send riders exposed to COVID-19 to the race."

"Withdrawing from the race will allow the Cobblestone Classic athletes to recover and hit the reset button. No one is more disappointed than we are, but we hope this decision will allow them to preserve the rest of the spring season and get back on track."[15

Team leader Vanmarcke told Het Nieuwsblad (opens in new tab) that the withdrawal has brought the team to its lowest point.

"We don't have enough riders anymore. Rudy Barbier dropped out at Corona and Cock tested positive. Rudy Barbier dropped out in Corona and Cocque also tested positive. We are at our lowest point. As a team, we can't be more depressed as we don't have enough professional riders to run the Ronde."

"Not that I will play an important role in this Tour de Flanders, but I wanted to be there and I wanted to be part of the peloton.

He will now head to Denia, Spain, for a warm-weather training camp in preparation for Paris-Roubaix, his main goal for the spring.

Without Giacomo Nizzolo (broken wrist) and Tom van Asbroeck (blood clot), the team is missing more riders from the Tour of Flanders due to illness or injury.

Peter Sagan (Total Energies), Quinn Simmons (Trek Segafredo), and Stefan Bissegger (EF Education Easypost) have already withdrawn from the race and missed Thursday's course recon in Jambovisma Wout Van Art's participation is also in jeopardy.