Bogota (AFP)
The winner of the 2019 Tour de France, Egan Bernal, and many Colombian sportsmen will leave Colombia on Sunday where they are confined to return to Europe and resume competition, the Colombian Sports Ministry announced Thursday.
Egan Bernal (Ineos) is among the 150 Colombian athletes who will make a special flight from Bogota to Madrid on Sunday, said the Ministry of Sports and the national airline, Avianca.
Other passengers on the flight include several cyclists: Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic), winner of the Tour of Italy 2014 and Tour of Spain 2016, Rigoberto Uran (EF Pro Cycling) and Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana).
The full list of passengers will be known on Saturday, once all the necessary tests for the Covid-19 have been carried out, and their results known.
"Our athletes will be able to arrive in Europe to comply with the competition schedules," said Colombian Sports Minister Ernesto Lucena.
On their arrival in Madrid, the athletes will not have to be placed in quarantine, since the Spanish government considers sufficient the tests and protocols carried out before the trip, added the minister.
Juan Diego Zapata, director of Avianca, for his part assured that "each stage of the flight" would follow "all the health recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO)" and "governments".
These athletes will leave Colombia in a critical period for the country, which already has more than 165,000 contaminations to Covid-19 and at least 5,000 deaths, and where the number of cases explodes.
The evolution of the epidemic has forced the government to order the reconversion of several cities, including Bogota and Medellin. Colombia has been in a state of emergency since March 18, resulting in the closure of borders and the drastic limitation of the number of commercial flights.
© 2020 AFP