Michael Matthews tested positive for COVID-19 nine stages into the Giro D’Italia. (Facebook: Michael Matthews) Nine stages into the Giro d’Italia, one of the world’s toughest cycling races, Michael Matthews was tired.<\/p>\n

Despite the mental and physical fatigue, the Australian had been riding well, challenging for podium finishes, improving as the race went on.<\/p>\n

He had every reason to be optimistic.<\/p>\n

After a tough year that had seen him snubbed by his team for the Tour de France and suffer a horrific injury to his hand during a crash, things were finally turning around.<\/p>\n

But then, in the early hours of the morning before stage 10 of the Giro, all hell broke loose. ‘Am I going to die?’<\/p>\n

Matthews was woken by the team doctor running into his room.<\/p>\n

"To wake up at 1:00am, with your doctor running in, saying your roommate has to run out of the room and change rooms, and, ‘You’ve tested positive and you’re out of the Giro,’ it definitely turned my Giro upside down, that’s for sure," Matthews said. Matthews has now tested negative and is out of isolation.(Reuters: Christian Hartmann) He was left to ponder what might have been during a long and lonely night."Throughout that whole night, I had thousands of thoughts going through my head. Am I going to die? Am I struggling to breathe? Am I having a fever?" he said."All those symptoms of the corona were going through my head."The morning brought more bad news."I woke in the morning to my doctor saying, ‘OK […]<\/p>\n

Continue reading the original article at: www.abc.net.au<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Matthews tested positive for COVID-19 nine stages into the Giro D’Italia. (Facebook: Michael Matthews) Nine stages into the Giro d’Italia, one of the world’s toughest cycling races, Michael Matthews was tired. Despite the mental and physical fatigue, the Australian had been riding well, challenging for podium finishes, improving as the race went on. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":231,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","content-type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n