Michael Morkov leaves Tour de France after 200 kilometers alone: "It was so indescribably hard"

Michael Morkov didn't finish the Giro d'Italia as planned, however after a bad day he had to abandon the Tour de France as he reached the finish of stage 15 outside the time limit.

Morkov had started the hot day in a complicated position as he was dropped in the first hilltops of the day. As the team managed to support Fabio Jakobsen into returning to the peloton, Morkov didn't have that luck and couldn't follow the convoy in the soaring hot temperatures that are currently hitting southern France.

Morkov rode the whole stage by himself, arriving in Carcassonne over an hour after the peloton. Despite the extended time limit on the day as a precaution measure, it was not enough to keep the veteran in the race.

"It's sad to leave a great race like this. It was so indescribably hard. I knew it would be a tough fight today, and see if it would be enough to continue the race," he told reporters at the end of the day.

"I believed all day. Maybe I was a bit optimistic, but with 25 kilometers to the finish, I could see that I'd have to go an average of 60Km/h, and even if it was downhill, I wouldn't be able to do it alone. There I knew, that it would be near impossible," he added.

This will be another hit for Fabio Jakobsen who lost a key support rider for the final stages.