The USA's Brandon McNulty has abandoned the Tour de France on stage 18 after being dropped early on Thursday and riding just in front of the broom wagon for much of the stage.
McNulty started Thursday's stage from Voiron but was reportedly suffering from a sore throat, compounding the fact that he was struck by a car driver just two days ago whilst training for stage 16's TT.
Normally a strong climber and a key domestique for race leader Tadej Pogačar, it was therefore a surprise to see the American rider dropped fairly early on during the stage, fading away from the peloton alongside the sprinters only 25km into the stage.
He soldiered on for most of the day, falling as far back as 25 minutes behind the peloton and trailing just in front of the broom wagon, but he eventually called it a day in the final 50km of racing, climbing off and quitting the race.
UAE already had one rider suffer through illness on stage 17, when Adam Yates struggled with stomach problems and was shepherded to the finish by Tim Wellens. UAE told Cyclingnews on Thursday morning that Yates' illness was isolated and stomach problems had not spread through the team, but that didn't mean none of the other riders were ill at all, with McNulty suffering from a different ailment.
"It's different to Adam's problem, he has a stomach problem and vomit. Today he's better," UAE sports manager Matxin Joxean Fernandez explained to Eurosport.
"Brandon doesn't have a fever, he doesn't have Covid, he doesn't have any positive results in these different tests. He just has bad symptoms. He's sick, it's his throat, no fever but he has bad symptoms."
Wellens also admitted to Belgian media at the start of stage 18 that he was feeling somewhat ill, though he managed to stay with the peloton throughout the day.
Losing McNulty means Pogačar has lost a key supporter for the final few – very hard – days of this Tour de France, with at least one other teammate ill.
Following McNulty's abandon, a radio message from the UAE team car was broadcast on the Tour coverage, with a team DS telling the riders that the American had abandoned after he "was alone for 50 kilometres" before saying, "come on, you can do it still".
UAE did some pacing on stage 18, but were able to sit back and let a strong breakaway go, and then leave pacing in the finale to Pinarello-Q36.5 and TotalEnergies, who were trying to control the gap to protect their riders' top 10 placings.
According to Pogačar, speaking to Eurosport on Thursday morning, the team had taken preventative measures against the spread of any illness, with Adam Yates eating separately from his teammates whilst he was unwell.
"We can get some sickness from alongside the road, with hundreds of thousands of fans screaming at us and spitting on us when they're yelling," he added. "So I think it's easier to catch some disease that way than in the team bubble."
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