Half the peloton sick after Belgian race, cowpats blamed

Several cyclists, including riders set to start the Giro d’Italia on Friday, fell ill after a Belgian one‑day race, with cow manure on the roads suspected as the cause.

Three Lotto‑Intermarché riders suffered abdominal pain, diarrhoea, fever and vomiting, and were briefly hospitalised, the team reported from Bulgaria, where the Giro opens on Friday.

Arnaud De Lie, winner of the Famenne Ardenne Classic on Sunday and expected to lead the Belgian squad at the Giro, initially showed no symptoms but felt nauseous during the flight to Bulgaria. The team said he is not feeling well, yet his participation in the Giro remains uncompromised at this stage. Only five of Lotto’s eight riders were able to attend the race presentation on Wednesday.

According to Belgian broadcaster Sporza, other teams such as Alpecin have also been affected, while Lotto’s sporting director Maxime Bouet stated: “Half the peloton is ill.”

Lotto said the riders may have been contaminated by cow manure on the Ardennes course, with wet roads causing excrement to be splashed onto them. Although the exact cause has not been confirmed, campylobacter – a bacteria linked to gastrointestinal infections – is suspected.

In Brussels, local authorities said vandals damaged a commemorative stone slab erected in honour of Belgian cycling great Eddy Merckx. The monument shows the face of the five‑time Tour de France winner, now 80 and still one of Belgium’s most beloved sporting figures.

“This Wednesday morning, residents were shocked to discover that the monument to Eddy Merckx, located in Bouvreuils Square, had been vandalised,” said Benoît Cerexhe, mayor of Woluwe‑Saint‑Pierre, adding that he was “outraged.” He asked, “Who could want to attack an athlete, a symbol of our country? Nothing justifies such an act.”

An official in the mayor’s office said CCTV footage from the area will be analysed to identify the perpetrators and that the monument – inaugurated in 2019 when the Tour de France began in the city – will be repaired without delay.