Two days after his sprint victory, Olav Kooij will not be at the start of the 10th stage of the Giro between Pompeii and Cusano Mutri. The Dutch rider from Visma – Lease a Bike fell ill during the rest day, forcing him to retire, his team announced on X this Tuesday morning.
๐ฎ๐น #Tour of Italy
This Giro dโItalia sweeps us through a range of emotions ๐๐ข. Olav Kooij has developed a fever during the rest day. He is unable to continue. Get well soon, Grand Tour stagewinner ๐ซถ๐ผ pic.twitter.com/jOsnU9rJgW
โ Team Visma | Lease a Bike (@vismaleaseabike) May 14, 2024
โThis Giro takes us through all the emotions. Olav Kooij developed a fever during the rest day. He is unable to continue. Get well soon, stage winner of a Grand Tour,โ writes his team. After Christophe Laporte and Robert Gesink, the Dutch team loses a third rider in this Giro.
On Saturday, the 22-year-old rider won the stage led by Julian Alaphilippe in the sprint between Allezzano and Naples, blowing victory fifty meters from the finish to Jhonatan Narvaez.
At the start of this 10th stage, two other riders are missing. The Briton from Israel – Premier Tech Ethan Vernon, also ill, was unable to start this Tuesday. โI tried to fight the last few days with antibiotics to stay until the rest day, but I couldn’t get rid of the disease. With the Olympics coming up, the doctor decided I needed to rest to fully recover before that big goal,โ Vernon said.
Sadly @EthanVernon22‘s @Tour of Italy ends today as he has to abandon the race through sickness. Get well soon, Ethan!
โ๐โ๐ฎ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ด๐ข๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐จ๐ฆ 10. ๐ ๐ต๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ง๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ข๐ด๐ต ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ๐ดโฆ pic.twitter.com/gWL5Fa2B6G
โ Israel โ Premier Tech (@IsraelPremTech) May 14, 2024
Max Kanter, the German rider from the Astana Qazaqstan Team, must also abandon the Giro, also due to a fever, coupled with an โacute respiratory viral infectionโ, writes his training on X. With these three new abandonments , 17 riders have left the Giro route since the start of the race.
