Today's stage of Paris-Nice saw an extensive list of riders miss the start of the stage and between those there were three riders from Israel - Premier Tech. Only one rider will be at the Israeli team's bus for the rest of the week and that is Hugo Houle.
The Canadian rider is currently sitting 20th in the overall classification and may either eye a possible surprising GC result or breakaway later in the race. One thing is for sure, it's that he will not have a single teammate throughout these last four days of racing. Three riders from the team abandoned today before the start, James Piccoli and Carl Fredrik Hagen abandoned due to "non-Covid viral symptoms" whilst Tom van Asbroeck has "early signs of a respiratory infection".
Earlier this week, Mads Wurtz, Rudy Barbier and Guillaume Boivin have all abandoned the race aswell.
Although these symptoms resemble those of a Covid-19 infection, the team has stressed that all riders repeatedly tested negative. Quick-Step's Yves Lampaert and BORA's Nils Pollit reported having a sinusite, AG2R's Clément Champoussin a flu, Gino Mäder a respiratory tract infection and Team DSM's Kevin Vermaerke was also confirmed to leave due to an illness, it may be the effects of the low temperatures and strong winds that the peloton has been facing all week long so far.
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- You beat me to it. Should he make a full recovery (likely) and go light early in the year. One, two, three. Don't ask me, I don't give a damn. Should he be on a Feel-Like-He's-Fixin'-to-Die High.Yepperoni04-11-2026
- The deciding factor may be the (TBD) number of (any type of) kilometers without Pogacar.Yepperoni04-11-2026
- Unexplained chronic fatigue is an all too common bitch. The hard to find definitive answer may lie buried in gut mechanisms. A mystery of the deep.Yepperoni04-11-2026
- It's weird to say Evenepoel would be making a "serious mistake by adding the 2027 Giro d'Italia to his calendar, warning that such a decision could even be interpreted as a lack of confidence in his ability to win the Tour de France." It may well be a mistake but with so many commentators (of all sorts) continuously claiming almost everything Remco does as being a mistake, almost nobody should care what the pundits and the disparagers should say. His team may not want him to do the Giro, and that matters. But it's possibly or probably up to Remco to decide and it may not have to be decided on until a month or so ahead of the race. Yes , Remco is inconsistent much like the majority of the best riders but he's enjoying a period of not having been recently injured (or sick). Whatever he does he need not be concerned with critics who will second guess any perceived failure no matter what. I suspect he will have enough other races on his schedule so he won't be considering it. But the worst reason to not race it is because of what some will say - humorous that be.Yepperoni04-11-2026
- I'll say clean sweep all grand tourZamorano04-11-2026
- And the place he calls home is in Slovenia with his parents.RidesHills04-11-2026
- I think Tadej will be working on his new C7 TT position for the Tour de France :-)frieders304-11-2026
- Every great cyclist has at least two Giro/Tour doubles, and in modern cycling or what we call modern cycling, Miguel Indurain is the only guy to do it twice. I think Tadej should go for it and commit if he is putting up good numbers somewhere around January/February.awp04-11-2026
- the 6th TDF is a more record breaking opportunity than a 2nd Giro. Jonas can double up. For Remco its TDF. For Sexias it will be a good opportunity but as usual TDF will be his main goal For del Toro, yes good opportunityabstractengineer04-11-2026
- Well, this is something which isn't all that common
Rafionain-Glas03-11-2026
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🇨🇦 @HugoHoule représente à lui seul l’équipe @IsraelPremTech. Il sera seul au départ aujourd’hui. Bon courage Hugo ! 💪 🇨🇦 @HugoHoule represents the entire @IsraelPremTech squad! He will be alone from his team today. #ParisNice
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