"I haven't cycled in recent days, that doesn't make you a nicer person at home either" - Wout Poels Tour de France in doubt after illness puts halt to his preparations
Cycling
Wout Poels was expected to be a key part of the Bahrain - Victorious lineup at the Tour de France in aid of Mikel Landa. After illness put his training camp on hold however, time is ticking for Poels to prove his fitness.
"It actually went really well, until halfway through the altitude camp," Poels has revealed on his podcast In Koers. "I started having bowel problems, had to go to the toilet more often... things like that. Then I actually didn't recover anymore, which is difficult at altitude anyway. I was actually glad I could go home again."
Initially, Poels had intended to participate in the Critérium du Dauphiné. However, the illness he suffered ruled him out of the race. With the Tour de France quickly approaching, Poels now has a decision to make regarding how he takes his preparation.
"It's not all ideal. Normally I would ride the Dauphiné, but I just couldn't go there. You still have the Tours of Switzerland and Slovenia, but they already start next week. It really depends on next week, how things actually go on the bike," he explains. "The past few days I haven't cycled, that doesn't make you a nicer person at home either. Then you just sit and think, because you want to feel fitter. And then that doesn't happen, so you just have to wait and wait and wait. And then the days are long."
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- Avoiding him is a good strategy, you get more wins and then you can compete in the TDF relatively relaxed. Pit yourself against Pogi and not only there will be no wins, it will be considerable mental setbackabstractengineer21-12-2024
- If you hold onto then, you blowup in a minute and then you finish 5 minutes down like Ben O'Connorabstractengineer21-12-2024
- Based on what argument?Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Agreed except the length of climbs, pretty sure you can stretch that to about a km unless we’re talking about half a dozen in quick succession.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Lot of contradictory information floating around world cup contenders, someone should do some tidying up.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- A bit much to suggest that Pogacar is better than MvdP on most terrains. The only terrain Pogacar is clearly better is long climbs, on any other terrain they are pretty even except flat cobbles and short and steep climbs (max a few 100 mtrs) where MvdP is clearly better than Pogacar.Velovibes21-12-2024
- The likelihood of RE improving enough at this point to outclass TP or JV is less than zero.verve82521-12-2024
- That’s the most stupid thing I’ve read for a long time, did you not go to school and learn even the most basic physics? Aero depends on one thing only, drag, drag depends speed and the relationship is squared and apart from maybe at zero or the speed of sound or due to side winds that relationship is valid at all speeds, it dies not “suddenly” start at a magic number. Very simply, the faster you go the more the effect becomes important. If you think 25km/h is needed to have noticeable effects you’re delusional, athletic WR are cancelled as soon as winds top 2m/s that’s 7.2km/h, why because the assistance is already too important at that speed and the times prove it. You don’t even consider wind which can significantly increase the effective speed for aerodynamics and you underestimate speed of climbs, 6% is ridden more at 30 than 25km/h, a speed at which early generation high rims were considered to have more advantages than disadvantages. And finally, as in normal races you can’t just switch bikes according to terrain, it’s pretty pointless to discuss climbs as a separate situation, the aero will have justified itself plenty during the rest of the ride.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- If you look at how much TP progressed in that 1 1/2 years you can no longer say that’s nothing. If Remco improves as much he’s a challenger!Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Froome wishing to ride the Vuelta...he won't even be selected for the team!frieders320-12-2024