Virus racking Team Sky, staffer dies
A mystery virus has swept through Team Sky, forcing three riders so far to abandoned the Vuelta a Espana, and it has just been reported the Sky staff-member Txema González has died from the same illness that has plagued the riders. Early on Friday, Juan Antonio Flecha dropped out of stage seven of the Vuelta, and with that announcement came the news that González had fallen into a coma and died after being hospitalized in Seville, the city that hosted the Vuelta kick-off on August 28.
“We just found about it. It’s disastrous news,” said the race director Javier Guillén. “We had heard that he was in bad condition, but we never expected this. We never could have imagined this would have happened. He’s part of the cycling family, part of the Vuelta. We will honour his memory tomorrow morning before the start, that’s the least we can do. This is very, very sad news.”
González was a Basque masseur who had worked with Euskaltel-Euskadi before joining the British-based Team Sky when they formed at the beginning of the year. He had been suffering from the illness since the beginning of the race but the news wasn’t made public until cyclist Greg Henderson announced the coma via Twitter. Reportedly, his condition steadily deteriorated since he fell into the coma. A minute of silence will be held before the start of Saturday’s stage eight.
“The whole staff is sick and we don’t know yet whether it’s a virus or food poisoning,” said team director David Brailsford.”
The same virus forced John-Lee Augustyn and Ben Swift to abandon the Vuelta in the third stage, while Juan Antonio Flecha abandoned the race earlier today.
"Doctors recommended Flecha withdraw from the race if he was still suffering from fever or nausea," said a team spokesman.
The mystery-virus is sudden and fast, as shown by Swift’s abandonment of the race less than 24 hours after a seventh-place stage finish where he spoke of how good he felt.
The sudden onset of the sickness was underlined by Swift’s withdrawal around 100 kilometers into Monday’s stage; less than 24 hours earlier he had sprinted into seventh place in the second stage and remarked on how good he was feeling.
Tags: