Mathieu van der Poel will no longer get on on Tuesday in the Tour de France. The 30-year-old Brabant cyclist is struggling with pneumonia, his team reports Alpecin-Deceuninck on Facebook. “With regret we must announce that Mathieu van der Poel is forced to leave the Tour de France prematurely.”
In recent days, the rider has been struggling with colds, which worsened on Monday on the day of rest. In the evening he got a fever, after which he was brought to the hospital in Narbonne for further investigation. The pneumonia was determined there.
“In consultation with the medical staff, it was decided that he can no longer continue the competition. His health has the highest priority and peace and recovery are now essential.” Van der Poel must take at least a week’s rest.
Strong round
Van der Poel was working on a strong Tour de France. He won the second stage, wore the yellow jersey for four days and showed himself several times in the early flight. Despite the fact that he did not feel completely well on Sunday due to a cold and a bee sting near his eye, he was again in the leading group and won an intermediate sprint.
VDP was still militant on Sunday after the fifteenth stage. “With the rest day of tomorrow and the Mont Ventoux ride after that I get two more days to recover relatively. So hopefully it will be a lot better.”
In the sprint classification, the cyclist was third with 210 points. The Italian sprinter Jonathan Milan leads that rankings with 251 points and is currently wearing the green jersey.