First, Brandon McNulty abandoned, 24km from the finish of stage 18. He couldn’t continue anymore.
An hour later, Tadej Pogačar, dressed in his yellow jersey but curiously in black shorts (you can join the dots), crossed the line in the GC group, flanked by Isaac Del Toro. UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s main men were fine. But for the first time all Tour de France, they had no support around them.
Felix Großschartner was next from the UAE team to be welcomed by his team’s soingeurs at Orcières-Merlette, but he stopped at the top and turned straight around. He wasn’t going to answer questions about the stomach virus in the camp.
Ten minutes later, Nils Politt arrived. He looked fine but neither was he in the game for fluffy comments: he was going to be honest and realistic – UAE have a problem.
“We have to survive the next two days now,” Politt said. “It is a major setback for us as a team,” he said of McNulty’s exit. Pogačar echoed those sentiments: “We will miss him the next two days, obviously.”
Eleven minutes afterwards, Adam Yates – struck down by the bug and vomiting since Tuesday – finished the stage, but hunched over his handlebars, he was pale-skinned and exhausted. He was not in a good way. Pogačar expressed confidence yesterday and today that Yates would recover in time for the high Alps – but on this evidence, Yates is regressing, not progressing.
“We hope Adam felt much better today as well. He fell behind simply to save energy for the next two days,” Politt added. That might be true, but if this was Yates recovering, he’s going to need a miracle to be a useful aid to Pogačar on the back-to-back ascents of Alpe d’Huez.
Like Großschartner, Yates refused to speak. A warm coat was put on him for the 15km ride back down to the team’s bus. He would have freewheeled down from Orcières-Merlette, but it was more time spent on the bike when his body needs complete rest.
Florian Vermeersch arrived four minutes after Yates, and though he looked better than his teammate and also spoke briefly to the assembled media curious as to the state of the team’s health, his skinsuit was also stained by salt marks.
He too headed down the mountain, and he would have passed Tim Wellens who only just made the time cut by two minutes. The Belgian, like Yates, is similarly run down with the same stomach virus.
Usually, UAE team boss Mauro Gianetti is at the finish line of every stage, ready to greet his riders. This time he wasn’t. In his press conference with the written media, Pogačar only had time for three questions – there are normally five – and one of them he answered in one-word; these days Pogačar tends to give lengthy answers.
Those two observations – Gianetti’s absence and Pogačar’s few words – may mean nothing, but the struggles, body language and admissions of illness from his teammates suggest that multiple UAE riders are being afflicted by the stomach virus. At the worst possible time.
With just three days to go, Pogačar has an advantage of 4:32 in the GC to Remco Evenepoel, a lead that was presumed unassailable. But all of a sudden, victory looks a tiny bit less sure. Illness is the one great uncontrollables that not even UAE’s money can control.
Will a third week virus – either directly by Pogačar falling ill or indirectly due to his sick teammates being unable to support him – so cruelly deny the Slovenian? Evenepoel and Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe can sense an opportunity.
“Thank goodness Isaac and Tadej are feeling good, and so are Felix and I,” Politt added.
“We are trying to separate ourselves from the team as much as possible in order to simply minimise the risk. Many riders are ill in the bunch – you hear from every team that there’s something going around. That is simply part of three weeks. I’ve never got to the end of a Tour without sick hands.”
Vermeersch said he’s struggling with an injury rather than illness – “It’s not a problem for me,” he stated – but the same cannot be said for his Belgian compatriot Wellens. “Tim is really out of sorts,” Vermeersch admitted.
Ever the optimist, however, Pogačar turned spin doctor: yes, UAE are affected, but so too is everyone else. “I think we can manage it,” he said. “It’s the third week. All teams are suffering a bit.
“Bodies are everywhere on a stage like today. We will survive the stage tomorrow, try to come to Alpe d’Huez and see what we can do. We will keep fighting and I believe we can do it.”
The road will tell.
