The 109th Tour de France has its next prominent dropout. Mathieu van der Poel from the Alpecin-Fenix team had to give up exhausted on Wednesday’s tough eleventh stage of the Tour of France.
The Dutch classics specialist, who wore the yellow jersey for several days last year, previously rode the entire tour based on his form.
In addition to van der Poel, the Belgian Oliver Naesen from the AG2R Citröen also gave up on the section from Albertville to the Col du Granon Serre Chevalier. At the twelfth stage of the tour on Thursday, 159 of the 176 riders who originally started will still be at the start. All Germans are still there.
The cancellations of the 109th Tour de France (given the last contested stage):
Stage 10: Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands/Team Alpecin-Fenix), Oliver Naesen (Belgium/AG2R Citröen)
Stage 9: Ben O’Connor (Australia/AG2R Citröen), Luke Durbridge (Australia/BikeExchange-Jayco), Alexis Vuillermoz (France/TotalEnergies), George Bennett (New Zealand/UAE Team Emirates)
Stage 8: Kevin Vermaerke (USA/DSM), Gianni Moscon (Italy/Astana Qazaqstan, Guillaume Martin (France/Cofidis), Kasper Asgreen (Denmark/Quick Step Alpha Vinyl), Ruben Antonio Almeida Guerreiro (Portugal/EF Education-EasyPost )
Stage 7: Geoffrey Bouchard (France/AG2R-Citroen), Vegard Stake Laengen (Norway/UAE Team Emirates)
Stage 6: Alex Kirsch (Luxembourg/Trek-Segafredo)
Stage 5: Jack Haig (Australia/Bahrain Victorious), Michael Gogl (Austria/Alpecin-Deceuninck), Daniel Oss (Italy/TotalEnergies)