After being forced to compete in the road race at the Dutch National Championship in Drenthe on Saturday due to a positive COVID-19, Array Inge van der Heijden went to Instagram to announce that a new one had returned negative and raised questions about the reliability of the PCR Testing.
“I tested negative on Friday last week,” Van der Heijden confirmed. “And although I showed no symptoms of infection, to my disappointment, I was suddenly positive on Wednesday. In the consultation, I made the decision to do a new PCR test and the result was negative. As I expected, actually.
Now, the under-23 cyclocross world champion says she will be about 40 years old but worried about the rest of the season.
“This is the national road championship and as a cyclist, it’s not the most important thing, but I’m worried about the upcoming ‘cross season in terms of qualifying races, because if you miss one’ cross, you’ll soon lose your grade. . “
What is at stake is even greater for runners in the next Tour de France: according to protocols, if two runners from the same team are positive, the total team will be forced to retire.
It is sometimes thought that the PCR test is very reliable with a low false positive rate (confirming that a user has the virus but is not infected). However, because the check amplifies the small lines of genetic clothing in the virus, any cross-contamination of the collection or remedy of the samples can result in a false positive.
A negative follow-up result would verify a false from the previous test.
The PCR test is also related to the absence of an infection, or false negative results, if a patient is too early in infection and has still produced enough viral remains to be detectable, but Van der Heijden says he has had no symptoms.
Wednesday’s positive led Van der Heijden’s teammates Yara Kastelijn and Aniek van Alphen to withdraw from the championship because they had made a reconnaissance race with Van der Heijden.
Similarly, the Ineos team withdrew their runners from the Italian championships after Leonardo Basso performed a test of the virus after a reconnaissance race with teammates Filippo Ganna, Gianni Moscon and Salvatore Puccio.
Van der Heijden is not the first cyclist to have a false positive in the test: Omer Goldstein (Israel Start-Up Nation) tested positive for coronavirus and the result led to him and two companions getting rid of the Vuelta a Burgos in July, but the result turned out to be probably a false positive after his reanalysis got negativeArray as well as tests from his teammates.
Other cyclists who tested positive for COVID-19 with any symptoms were Hugo Houle (Astana), Larry Warbasse and Silvan Dillier (AG2R La Mondiale).
Dillier’s subsequent tests turned out to be negative and questioned coronavirus protocols, and he told the Swiss newspaper Blick that he was the “healthiest user in the world” and that what had happened to him was “not correct.”
Subscribe to the Cyclingnews newsletter. You can choose to leave at any time. For more information on how to do this and how we purchase your data, please see our privacy policy.
Thank you for signing up for Cycling News. You will soon receive a verification email.
There’s a problem. Refresh the page and re-consult.
Cyclingnews is from Future plc, a foreign media organization and a leading virtual publisher. Visit our corporate website.