Illness spreading in France: Visma | Lease a Bike loses Nordhagen, 11th overall after strong mountain ride

Something appears to be going around in the peloton at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, with illness already forcing several riders out over the past few days. It has now also hit Visma | Lease a Bike: Per Strand Hagenes and Jørgen Nordhagen, who had still been riding very strongly on Friday, will not start Saturday’s stage because of sickness. The original Dutch article was published on June 13, 2026.

“Unfortunately, Per Strand Hagenes and Jørgen Nordhagen won’t take the start of stage 7 of Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Both riders developed symptoms of illness overnight. We wish Per and Jørgen a speedy recovery,” the Dutch team wrote on X about the two Norwegians. On Friday, the squad had already lost Wout van Aert, although his withdrawal was due to an elbow issue following an earlier crash.

The withdrawals of Hagenes and Nordhagen are particularly striking because both riders were still performing very well on Friday. Hagenes was part of the breakaway, while Nordhagen stayed with the best climbers for a long time on the uphill sections. He finished as the sixth rider from the peloton on the mountain stage to Crest-Voland and was still sitting 11th in the general classification.

Cofidis also had to make changes before Saturday’s stage: Louis Rouland and Emanuel Buchmann had woken up ill and were unable to continue. Earlier in the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Bahrain Victorious had already been hit by illness with Matej Mohorič and Matevž Govekar, while Movistar also lost several riders, including Ivan Romeo, Jefferson Cepeda and Diego Pescador.

Of the 154 riders who started, “only” 122 are still in the race at this point. Not all of those abandons can be attributed to illness, however. Netcompany INEOS, for example, must continue from Saturday without Oscar Onley and Joshua Tarling after both riders crashed. Onley dislocated his shoulder, while Tarling broke his collarbone during Friday’s sixth stage.

Author: David Bavin-Hobbs - [email protected]