As one Vuelta a España rider soldiers on with symptoms, has the Covid bubble burst?

Isaac Del Toro's rear wheel may be somewhat lacking in drafters this week at the Vuelta a España. The 20-year-old UAE-Team Emirates rider has been diagnosed with Covid, is not asymptomatic (he has "mild symptoms", according to the team), and will be huffing and puffing his way around Spain for the foreseeable.

Meanwhile, riders including Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) left the race with the virus, as did Del Toro's UAE team-mate Joāo Almedia. He abandoned the race after Sunday's stage nine, demonstrating that the team appears to be playing it on a case-by-case basis.

But that doesn't change the fact that 'Torito' will be free to ride.

We know that riders have continued in Grand Tours after testing positive – but they have generally been asymptomatic, or perhaps, not publicly acknowledged that they had the virus.

Del Toro's continuation could be a sign that the peloton is turning a slow corner when it comes to accepting the virus. It may please some less than others though – after all, an infectious rider can still spread the virus around and, potentially, end someone else's race.

It wasn't so long ago that a Covid diagnosis spelled the end of a rider's Grand Tour participation – no ifs, no buts.

Grand Tours immediately post-Covid saw nearly as much tension on the rest days as on the big mountain stages, as teams and riders waited to find out whether they had tested positive and would have to leave the race.

The 2020 races were the strictest, unsurprisingly, with teams ejected wholesale should they be found to have more than one positive within a seven-day period.

That was eased slightly the following year, with teams only having to leave the races if two riders (rather than two members of the entire team entourage) tested positive within the seven days.

In 2022 there was frustration in the peloton at how strict the covid protocols remained, with masks and compulsory rest day testing still a feature. Belgium’s Dries Devenyns, riding for Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl said at the time: "It’s quite impossible if we keep testing. Maybe we focus less on it? Send the guy home if he is sick, otherwise treat it like a normal illness."

That year's Tour de France did see a turnaround of sorts, with Rafał Majka and Bob Jungels allowed to ride on testing positive, after being diagnosed with a low viral load that meant they were not infectious.

Testing abandoned

Last year finally saw the end of rest day testing, with the UCI declaring: "The health protocol in force since the start of the 2023 season is considerably lighter than its previous versions to take into account the sharp decline in the Covid-19 pandemic in the vast majority of the world’s regions since the summer of 2022".

A confirmed negative test was also no longer needed to start the race, with the UCI adding: "In addition, the health risks linked to Covid-19 are currently extremely low in the peloton thanks to the cellular immunity induced by the very high vaccination coverage among its members (riders and other team members) and by the infections – that are increasingly mild – they have contracted."

At the Tour de France this year masks were reintroduced for those around the race after a number of positives – and ensuing abandons. Riders including Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) and Juan Ayuso – a key mountains domestique for Tadej Pogačar on the UAE-Team Emirates squad – were forced to quit.

Long Covid is clearly a concern too, with around 10% of 18-49 year olds who contract covid developing it, according to the Zoe Health Study.

It is widely accepted that moderate exercise is safe and even beneficial during a 'neck up' viral infection (an, according to one review published by Frontiers in Physiology, even HIIT could be immune boosting during covid). But with the huge exercise loads undertaken by Grand Tour riders and the comparative lack of understanding of the mechanics of long Covid, it is unsurprising that Covid continues to lead to rider withdrawals.

Covid, it is clear, has not faded to the light cold we all wish it was. Not yet, at least. But Del Toro's non-abandon seems to indicate that it is slowly becoming more and more accepted.