The Giro d'Italia has been hit by a spate of coronavirus-enforced withdrawals after the Mitchelton-Scott team, Steven Kruijswijk and Michael Matthews all pulled out.

Mitchelton-Scott, who saw Adam Yates test positive before stage eight, took the decision to abandon the race after four members of staff contracted the virus.

"As a social responsibility we've made the decision to withdraw," said Mitchelton-Scott boss Brent Copeland.

It comes after 571 tests conducted over October 11-12 also showed title contender Kruijswijk had caught COVID-19, with the Jumbo-Visma rider having sat 11th, one minute and 24 seconds off the pace set by Joao Almeida.

In addition, Team Sunweb's Matthews tested positive ahead of stage 10, along with staff members at Team AG2R-La Mondiale and Team INEOS.

#Giro UPDATE:

With the health of riders & staff our priority, we have withdrawn from the @giroditalia after results of the rest day COVID-19 testing, our 3rd round of testing in 3 days, revealed positive results for some of our staff.

Full details https://t.co/PWd7q5kcdL

— Mitchelton-SCOTT (@MitcheltonSCOTT) October 13, 2020