No Tour de France for Tao Geoghegan Hart: "It’s proving quite tricky to bring all the pieces of the puzzle together at once"

Tao Geoghegan Hart was set to race the Tour de France and throughout the year was built up to be an important domestique for Mattias Skjelmose. However, the Briton has suffered with illness during the Tour de Suisse which hasn't improved, and he will then be sidelined in order to make room for someone in better form.

The Briton showed strong form early in the season with a Top10 at a hotly-contested Volta ao Algarve, and followed that up with a modest spring. He returned to fighting for top results at the Tour of Slovenia where he was third but then at the Tour de Suisse he was only 25th and was not at his healthiest.

"Really enjoyed the first stages of the Tour of Switzerland, back in a world tour peloton for the first time properly this year. Unfortunately the last 5 days I got sick with a mild chest infection and felt progressively more lousy toward the end of the week even just to finish the race," he said in an Instagram post.

As a result, the decision was taken to not be part of the Tour de France where the team will be supporting Jonathan Milan and Mattias Skjelmose for the sprints and GC respectively, whilst also providing Thibau Nys with a Grand Tour debut and the chase for stage wins and a yellow jersey in the first week.

"At times the body feels like it’s coming back to some semblance of my prior level and I’m definitely seeing glimpses of that, but it’s proving quite tricky to bring all the pieces of the puzzle together at once. Looking forward to a week of rest now and then some consistent training before more racing in August," the Briton concluded. Like David Gaudu who announced the same decision, the Vuelta a España is likely to be the alternative.