"I'm really completely ruined" - another sick man in the Tour peloton Wout Poels describes completing the world's biggest race when you feel unwell

Wout Poels had to alter his preparations in spring, when the Giro d'Italia was replaced by Tour de France in his schedule. The ambition was clear as his team Bahrain - Victorious were hopeful the Dutchman could repeat his stage victory from 2023, but the harsh reality is that just like many other riders in the bunch, Poels is dealing with mild illness, not allowing him to contest the prizes.

"I'm really completely ruined," he admits in his column at Algemeen Dagblad. "But we dreamed of this as a little boy, right? Oh, in a weekend like this it's not fun at all to ride in the Tour de France? I had a good day on Saturday, but yesterday definitely not."

"It went very fast from the start. I still had a lot of confidence, wanted to get into the leading group and was really sitting on the back of the jury car during the neutralization. But when we started the first climb, I thought: 'I can be happy if I can follow'. I was dropped, came back briefly in the valley, but was parked afterwards."

Poels does know where the bad days come from. He is a bit sick. Not corona, which he feared, but a bad cold. "I caught a cold a few days ago and it is starting to come loose. I was afraid I had corona, because that is going around, but I tested negative for two days. So it is just a cold, I think. But it doesn't feel good."

Still, Poels is keeping his spirits up. "Now a nice rest day and a sprint stage. Then I hope I can get a bit fitter again and then there are still a few very nice stages to come. In the Vuelta last year I only won in stage twenty, so I am not giving up yet."