Houle waiting for latest controls after testing positive for COVID-19

Canadian rider Hugo Houle (Astana) is waiting for follow-up controls after testing positive for COVID-19. Last week after finishing the Tour of Poland, Houle revealed that he tested positive in routine controls despite not showing any symptoms.

“It must have happened at the hotel or during travel,” Houle told the Canadian newspaper Le Presse. “I washed my hands 80 times a day, but it can come from a cook at the hotel, or on a fork. I don’t know.”

Houle, 29, is currently in self-isolation in his apartment in Monaco, with a new round of controls expected to be returned Friday. He is slated to race next at Tirreno-Adriatico in September if he’s given the all-clear.

So far, only a handful of pros have tested positive during the coronavirus pandemic. Fernando Gaviria (UAE-Emirates) was among the first, and he is back to winning ways.

Houle had cleared two pre-race screenings ahead of the Poland tour, but came up positive in later in follow-up controls. No one else at Astana has currently tested positive for COVID-19. Ion Izagirre and Jakob Fuglsang, the recent winner of Il Lombardia, shared a room with or had close contact with Houle, but neither have returned back negative controls, reports said.

“I have no symptoms at all,” he said. “If I wasn’t a pro cyclist and undergoing these controls, I would have never known that I had it.”