Long list of abandonments in Paris-Nice and Tirreno after cold and wet days

First, Paris-Nice. In the opening three days, only Kelland O’Brien (Jayco AlUla, illness) and Maurice Ballerstedt (Alpecin-Premier Tech, saddle sores) had left the race. But over the next three stages, the riders began dropping out in large numbers. Because of the cold and the many crashes, stage 4 alone already produced fifteen DNS or DNF results.

Before stage 5 of Paris-Nice on Thursday, another eight withdrawals were added to that list. Casper van Uden (Picnic PostNL) and Pascal Ackermann (Jayco AlUla) no longer saw much point in continuing into what were mainly mountainous stages. Lidl-Trek’s Toms Skujins was clearly not feeling well either and also decided not to start on Thursday.

The Latvian had already apologised for his performance after the team time trial on day 3. “Because of me, we didn’t win.” Five riders failed to reach the finish of stage 5: Milan Fretin (Cofidis), Luke Durbridge (Jayco AlUla), Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Stian Fredheim and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) were all struggling with illness, weakness and/or nausea. For Gaudu in particular, it was a major blow, as he had been sitting fifth overall after four days.

“He wasn’t feeling well, completely exhausted,” came the explanation from the team. Oscar Onley (INEOS Grenadiers) and Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek) were later also reported ill in Paris-Nice, while Iván Romeo (Movistar) did not start because of stomach problems. Rick Pluimers (Tudor) was another DNS, and Niklas Märkl (Picnic PostNL), Simon Dehairs (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and Fabio Christen (Q36.5) all abandoned during the stage itself.

For several days, Tirreno-Adriatico had seen hardly any abandonments, but that changed on day 5 as well. After Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto) had already left the race on day 2 following his crash in Strade Bianche, stage 5 also saw Fernando Gaviria (Caja Rural), Xandro Meurisse (Q36.5) and Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal Quick-Step) disappear from the race.

Gaviria was reported to be dealing with knee problems, while Van Wilder was listed as ill.