Private chefs, exclusive hotels, a laboratory on the circuit ... This is the bubble of the cycling World Cup

Individual dishes, private cook, individual rooms, reserved rooms, separate tables, masks, prohibited visits and banned contact with the press.

The

de Ímola hotel is the bunker of the Spanish team in the World Cycling Championship, which starts today with the women's time trial and will culminate on Sunday with the men's road event.

The hotel complex is included in an anti-Covid-19 bubble designed by the

(UCI), which toughens the isolation conditions of the completed Tour.

In the French round, the cyclists passed a PCR control per week;

Now they have undergone a test before starting the concentration and they will do another three days before competing.

There will be a counter analysis and if the result is positive, the rider will be sent off, but could be replaced by another.

The UCI collects the tests carried out by the teams before going to the World Cup, but has also

to carry out tests, either in the hotels or at the Enzo e Dino Ferrari Autodrome itself, where they have set up a specific laboratory.

The tests can be run without getting out of the cars and the results will be known after 15 minutes.

The historic Formula 1 and motorcycle circuit is the headquarters of the championship, it is located near Bologna and within a 30-kilometer radius of action are the hotels of the 33 participating teams.

It is a

and

oppressive

than the one established by the Tour.

A giant bubble for an atypical championship.

It has been organized in record time after Switzerland's refusal to host the D'Aigle World Cup for fear of Covid-19 infections, with fewer races (without youth and sub'23) and with

.

Journalists will not be allowed to enter team hotels or do on-site interviews.

They will only contact the cyclists in the mixed zone of the finish line.

"We are going to follow the protocols to the letter, we do not want surprises", warns

, doctor of the Spanish Cycling Federation.

“We are all very conscientious, we are not going to leave a rope untied.

We are already rolling.

The runners, mechanics, assistants, masseurs and staff will be subjected to

.

Those who come from the Tour or the Giro Rosa have brought the results of the last controls, the rest have shown two negative PCRs, one carried out six days before arriving at Ímola and another three days before entering the bubble ”, clarifies the doctor.

All teams have reserved areas of the hotels where no one can enter, not even family members.

Outside contact is minimal.

The Spanish team has brought food from Spain.

"We only buy fresh," says the doctor.

«This World Championship is mentally very hard, because we could say that this is the third bubble for the riders, the first was that of preparation for the Tour, with the concentrations of the teams, then that of the Tour and now that of Ímola.

They are separated from their families for many weeks.

Now it would be their turn to rest, but they are here ", says

, the Spanish coach, who clarifies that working like this is strange:" We are practically alone in the hotel, with a

.

We do not share the dining room with anyone and, in addition, we have an exclusive basement, where we have our bicycles and equipment, no one enters there ».

Momparler clarifies that he selected only cyclists who finished the Tour, because now they have "a higher step" than other riders.

It will be a very tough road World Championship: the route consists of a 28.8-kilometer circuit, which will be completed nine laps and which includes two three-kilometer climbs, with an average percentage of 10%.

The accumulated unevenness is 5,000 meters.

«It will be a very open test.

is the colonel and

and

, the captains, ”Momparler warns.

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