Soraya Paladin (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) and Elyne Roussel (St Michel-Preference Homes-Auber93) were the latest to drop out of the Tour de France Femmes on Friday.
The peloton heads into the final two stages with only 130 riders left out of the 154 starters.
Stage 5 saw the most riders departing the Tour de France Femmes as the race headed to the mountains, as one did not start and eight others pulled out mid-stage. The biggest names to leave the race were Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly) and Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek).
Two riders had pulled out the previous day on stage 4 as non-starters, but that was little in comparison to the crash-marred peloton that managed to finish on Wednesday.
Only one rider abandoned the race on stage 3, with Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) not starting the stage and instead heading home to recover from a gastrointestinal infection.
Six riders were out of the race on stage 2, four of them victims of the time cut on a brutally fast and aggressive stage of racing.
Lucie Fityus and Ségolène Thomas (St Michael-Preference Home-Auber93), Marie Le Deunff (Winspace-Orange Seal) and Elena Pirrone (Roland Le Devoluy) missed the time limit.
Charlotte Kool (Picnic-PostNL), who crashed on the final stage of the Baloise Ladies Tour last week, did not start stage 4, while Sylvie Swinkels (Roland Le Devoluy) dropped out.
Marlen Reusser (Movistar Team) was the first rider to abandon the fourth edition of the race. Having started the race after suffering from food poisoning, the Swiss star stopped to help when teammate Liane Lippert crashed with 30km to go.
While both got up to set off, Lippert looked to be in pain, but Reusser seemed to be encouraging her teammate to forge on as the priority. Then, after 20 kilometres of riding in front of the broom wagon, Reusser abandoned the race.
The race takes place from July 26 to August 3, featuring nine days of racing. The event reaches new heights with a 1,165km route that spans four regions and features a total elevation gain of 17,240 metres with major climbs over the Col de Madeleine, Col de Joux Plane, and a mountaintop finale at Châtel.
While a selection of riders will be vying for the special classification jerseys for the overall classification, mountains classification, points classification and best young rider classification, many still will be aiming for stage wins and riding in support of their team leaders.
All riders aim to finish the nine-day race, but unfortunately, the reality of bike racing is that they will face turbulence along the way that may cause them to abandon the race altogether.
Riders may abandon mid-stage after a crash or illness, climbing into a car or being taken away by ambulance instead of finishing the stage. Others will pull out overnight and not start a new stage in the morning.
Riders can also be taken out of the race by the organisation, either by finishing outside of the time limit or even being disqualified due to 'DNF' means 'did not finish', 'DNS' means 'did not start', 'OTL' means 'outside time limit' and 'DSQ' means 'disqualified'.
Here is the list of all the riders who have pulled out of this year's race so far, which we will keep updated throughout the Tour de France Femmes.
Stage 1
- Marlen Reusser (Movistar Team) - illness, injury
Stage 2
- Lucie Fityus (St Michael-Preference Home-Auber93) - outside time limit
- Ségolène Thomas (St Michael-Preference Home-Auber93) - outside time limit
- Marie Le Deunff (Winspace-Orange Seal) - outside time limit
- Elena Pirrone (Roland Le Devoluy) - outside time limit
- Charlotte Kool (Picnic-PostNl) - DNS
- Sylvie Swinkels (Roland Le Devoluy) - DNF
Stage 3
- Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) - DNS due to gastrointestinal infection
Stage 4
- Rebecca Koerner (Uno-X Mobility) – DNS
- Eleonora Camilla Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ) – DNS
Stage 5
- Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly) – DNF
- Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) – DNF
- Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Uno-X Mobility) – DNF
- Katrine Aalerud (Uno-X Mobility) – DNF
- Monica Trinca Colonel (Liv AlUla Jayco) – DNF
- Karlijn Swinkels (UAE ADQ) – DNF
- Eugenia Bujak (Cofidis) – DNF
- Marjolein van 't Geloof (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) – DNF
- Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) – DNS
Stage 6
- Mie Bjørndal Ottestad (Uno-X Mobility) - DNS
- Valentina Cavallar (Arkéa-B&B Hotels Women) - DNS
- Kristyna Burlova (Ceratizit Pro Cycling) - DNF
Stage 7
- Soraya Paladin (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto)
- Elyne Roussel (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93)
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