{"id":162919,"date":"2025-09-23T04:01:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T04:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/162919\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T04:01:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T04:01:06","slug":"remco-evenepoel-loses-key-world-championships-road-captain-as-tiesj-benoot-tests-positive-for-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/162919\/","title":{"rendered":"Remco Evenepoel loses key World Championships road captain as Tiesj Benoot tests positive for COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

Belgium has lost one of their key road captains for Sunday’s elite men’s road race at the Road World Championships<\/a> in Rwanda after Tiesj Benoot<\/a> tested positive for COVID-19<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Benoot, who has taken part in seven Worlds road races, felt ill over the weekend and decided to take a test before travelling to Rwanda. Three tests returned positive results, ruling him out of taking part in this year’s World Championships<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old told Het Laatste Nieuws<\/a> that he’s only suffering mild symptoms, but he and his team agreed it’s best to avoid taking any risks.<\/p>\n

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“On Saturday during the Super 8 Classic, I wasn’t feeling great, but I thought it was a result of my last vaccination before this World Championships,” Benoot said.<\/p>\n

“On Sunday, it didn’t get any better, so I decided to take a COVID test. I took three, and they were all positive. Even though I don’t feel sick and the symptoms are very mild, it doesn’t seem wise or healthy to take any risks.”<\/p>\n

Benoot will be replaced in the Belgian squad by Louis Vervaeke \u2013 “a very worthy replacement”, said Belgium coach Serge Pauwels.<\/p>\n

Vervaeke will join Victor Campenaerts, Ilan Van Wilder, Quinten Hermans, Xandro Meurisse, Cian Uijtdebroeks, and Florian Vermeersch in the support squad for Remco Evenepoel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Benoot, who recently finished seventh at the GP Montr\u00e9al and fourth at the Donostia San Sebasti\u00e1n Klasikoa, said that missing out on the Worlds road race is a real disappointment given his strong form.<\/p>\n

“I felt really good. At the GP Montr\u00e9al, I felt great and felt like I could ride a good World Championships supporting Remco. In Sunday’s time trial, you could see that the altitude and humidity will be a real battle of attrition in the road race, and with the altitude training and heat training, I was ready for such a tough race.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, I’ll have to watch that race on TV now, and I’m really bummed about it. Hopefully, I can finish my season on a high note with the European Championships<\/a> and Il Lombardia.”<\/p>\n

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Pauwels said that Benoot is a rider who could’ve helped Evenepoel deep into the final of the 267.5km road race in Kigali and called his absence from the race “incredibly unfortunate”.<\/p>\n

He was a key rider in the squad supporting Evenepoel during his triumph at the Paris Olympic Games<\/a> last year. Now, the team will instead turn towards Van Wilder, Uijtdebroeks, and Vervaeke for help in the latter stages of the race.<\/p>\n

“Tiesj is someone who could have gone deep into the final. He specifically prepared for this during his altitude training,” Pauwels said.<\/p>\n

“It’s incredibly unfortunate for him and the team. He was also going to be the road captain, along with Victor Campenaerts. He’s already ridden in many World Championships as a professional, and for good reason. He was a certainty in my selection very early on.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Belgium has lost one of their key road captains for Sunday’s elite men’s road race at the Road…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-162919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}