Fred Wright suspects illness may have been behind him missing the Tour de France time cut, after he struggled on stage 11 in the Massif Central on Wednesday.
Wright was out the back of the peloton for most of the mountainous 211 kilometre stage and spent almost 160 kilometres by himself in front of the broom wagon. After missing the time cut by eight minutes, Wright was automatically pulled from the race.
During Thursday's stage 12, Wright's teammate Pello Bilbao also abandoned the race after struggling off the back of the peloton.
In a video clip released by his team, Bahrain Victorious, Wright said that there was illness going round in the peloton and that he believed it had possibly impacted him.
"Today I probably had the worst day on the bike of my entire career so far," Wright said. "I knew straight from the start, I actually followed an attack, and realised I wasn’t feeling the best. I really suffered in the first few kilometres and unfortunately, I found myself on my own which for a day like today wasn’t the best.
"I fought as much as I could, as much as my body allowed, but I really wasn’t feeling myself today. I’m not quite sure yet what the reason was, but I think there’s a bit of sickness going round in the peloton and I’m pretty certain that I’ve fallen victim to that one. It was probably the worst day it could have come."
Wright, who finished 8th on stage 8 of the Tour, added: "It’s a bitter pill to swallow, to not make the time cut and to be out of the Tour. But that’s the way things go. I’m gutted that I can’t finish this nice journey with the boys and fight for some stage wins, but I’m sure I’ll be back. I’ll take some rest now and then look towards the rest of the season."
Meanwhile Astana Qazaqstan announced on Thursday morning that Mark Cavendish’s main leadout man, Michael Mørkøv, was out of the race after testing positive for Covid-19. Astana said that Mørkøv had no typical symptoms of the virus, but was being pulled from the race to protect his long term health, regardless.
There is no Covid protocol currently in place at the Tour, a stark difference compared to the 2023 race, but some teams including Ineos Grenadiers and Bahrain Victorious have opted to put their own measures in place, such as wearing face masks.
Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek) are just two of a handful of high profile riders who were forced to miss the Tour this year after testing positive for the virus around the time of the Critérium du Dauphiné.
Current race leader Tadej Pogačar also said before the race began that he had tested positive for Covid around ten days before the Grand Départ in Florence.
