A wave of illness is sweeping through the peloton just days before the 2026 Giro d\u2019Italia, and the suspected culprit is quite gross: cow dung.<\/p>\n
If pro bike racing wasn\u2019t dangerous enough as it is.<\/p>\n
Riders are blaming mucky, grimy roads coated in manure at the Famenne Ardenne Classic last weekend in Belgium for a spate of stomach infections that\u2019s zapping riders ahead of Friday\u2019s start at the Giro.<\/p>\n
According to Sporza<\/em>, teams suspect cow manure coating some sections of the rain-soaked roads may be the source of the outbreak.<\/p>\n Wet conditions caused manure-coated muck to spray into the peloton.<\/p>\n Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9 sports director Kurt Van de Wouwer said the team believes the grimy race conditions triggered the bizarre wave of illness.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was cow shit on the road here and there on Sunday,\u201d Wouwer said. \u201cBecause of the rain they are starting to splash up. So that could be the cause.\u201d<\/p>\n Other teams also reported riders suffering from gastrointestinal symptoms following Sunday\u2019s race in Belgium\u2019s Ardennes region.<\/p>\n Winner Arnaud De Lie also fell ill shortly after his victory, Sporza<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n Riders across several teams were hit with abdominal pain, vomiting, and fever, forcing last-minute lineup changes for anyone heading to the Italian grand tour, Sporza<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n De Lie\u2019s Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9 team was hit hardest, with Liam Slock forced to withdraw from what would have been his first Giro after he was unable to travel due to illness.<\/p>\n De Lie skipped Wednesday\u2019s team presentation to recover, though team officials said he\u2019s still on track to start Friday.<\/p>\n Medical staff have doled out antibiotics to impacted riders, but the timing is far from ideal ahead of the season\u2019s first grand tour.<\/p>\n Giro organizers said the opening three stages in Bulgaria are dry and clear, and free of manure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/news\/you-wont-guess-whats-behind-the-wave-of-illness-ahead-of-giro-ditalia\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/horizDELIE.jpg”] Andrew Hood Updated May 7, 2026 08:45AM A wave of illness is sweeping through the peloton just days before the 2026 Giro d\u2019Italia, and the suspected culprit is quite gross: cow dung. If pro bike racing wasn\u2019t dangerous enough as it is. Riders are blaming mucky, grimy roads coated in manure at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1925510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1925510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925510\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1925510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1925510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1925510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Aches, fever, vomiting<\/h2>\n