"I didn't know what was wrong with my body" - Tobias Lund Andresen might end 2026 season after being diagnosed with mononucleosis
CyclingThursday, 20 August 2026 at 09:00
Decathlon CMA CGM Team are having a tremendous 2026 season, but not everything has gone according to plan. After Olav Kooij was sidelined from competition for several months due to an unknown and persistent virus, the team's other head sprinter Tobias Lund Andresen has now been sidelined after having been diagnosed with mononucleosis.
“I haven't trained in a long time,” Andresen revealed in the Cafe Eddy podcast. “I've had some physical problems since I got sick at the Giro, and it was mononucleosis, which I continued to race with".
The Dane started the Giro d'Italia as a leader for Decathlon, having surprised at the start of the season and earning himself a leadout the Italian Grand Tour - where Felix Gall was also appointed as team leader.
But the race did not go to plan. Throughout the three weeks Lund experienced a losing battle, having gotten ill. He was second in the opening sprint stage to Burgas, still in Bulgaria, but after the peloton flied to Italy the best he could manage was a seventh place in the finales to Milan and Rome.
The 23-year old did not know at the time, but he was already infected. Unaware, he continued to train and compete, even coming close to winning close to home as he was second at the Copenhagen Sprint only behind Jasper Philipsen.
He was set to start the Danish national championships two weeks later in Herning, but did not take part in it. He was since diagnosed with the virus. "I only found out about it three and a half weeks ago. It was about seven or eight weeks where I didn't know what was wrong with my body".
"It's difficult to deal with mentally when you don't know what's wrong. You can think of all the possible causes of the discomfort, so I was relieved when I found out it was infectious mononucleosis.”
Tobias Lund Andresen during stage 3 of the 2026 Tirreno-Adriatico
Andresen's breakthrough season might have ended in June
Andresen's doubts may have ended, but a return to racing is far from certain now. At the time being there are no races for the 23-year old, former rider from Team Picnic PostNL who hasn't raced in over two months. With the recovery times from mononucleosis varying, it might take weeks or months until Lund is back to competition, whilst he confirmed that he hadn't been putting in quality training for quite a while.
Although there are still two months of season left, it will not be easy to make a comeback in time - although the team can now depend on Olav Kooij, currently at the Renewi Tour, to perform in the bunch sprints.
Andresen performed at his very best level right after the start of the season, winning a stage at the Tour Down under where his consistency earned him the points classification. A week later, he would go on to win the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race - the biggest win of his career.
Having travelled back to Europe, Lund continued to display great form, finishing in the Top10 of both Omloop het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne, before beating Arnaud de Lie and Jasper Philipsen in an uphill sprint at Tirreno-Adriatico.
More than just a sprinter, he also rode to sixth at the E3 Saxo Classic and second at Dwars door Vlaanderen before the end of his successful spring campaign.
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
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