Third sprinter falls victim of illness following Giro d'Italia rest day - Astana's Max Kanter forced to abandon after disappointing start

Astana Qazaqstan Team is another one of the teams who's been having far from an ideal Giro d'Italia. Although Lorenzo Fortunato is surprising and sitting within the Top10; in two days the team has seen both leaders Alexey Lutsenko and Max Kanter pull the plug on their participation.

Kanter, such as fellow sprinters Olav Kooij and Ethan Vernon, fell ill during the past few days. The Kazakh team hoped that the rest day would've helped his health improve but this was not the case. 

The German rider withdraws from the race with symptoms of an acute respiratory viral infection with fever. He cracked the Top10 of the race only once in the first week - ironically in the day the team reports he fell ill, stage 9 - but has largely been absent from the sprints over the first week.

This was a disappointment for Astana who seek urgent UCI points, since the 26-year old looked in good form right before the Giro and took his first pro win with a dominant uphill sprint at the Tour of Turkey,