The final week of the Tour de France has taken a dramatic turn for the yellow jersey squad. What looked like an unassailable march toward victory for Tadej Pogačar now faces complications after a virus swept through the team following the rest day, forcing American rider Brandon McNulty to abandon the race during stage 18.
Illness and Attrition Strike UAE Team Emirates-XRG in the Alps
McNulty’s withdrawal 24 kilometers from the finish line on Thursday compounded an already mounting crisis. Key climbing support Adam Yates has been battling a severe stomach bug since Wednesday, vomiting on the bike and crossing the line 26 minutes down on the stage. Meanwhile, Tim Wellens struggled home with a sore throat, barely beating the time cut, and Florian Vermeersch reported dealing with an injury.
Brandon McNulty is in his hotel room booking a flight from Geneva airport. Adam Yates is battling a stomach issue and riding on empty. Tim Wellens has a sore throat and only just made the time cut on Thursday. And it also transpires that Florian Vermeersch is carrying an injury. That’s one man down for Tadej Pogačar, three below their best, and just three fully fit – as far as we know – going into a crucial Alpe d’Huez double header.
First, Brandon McNulty abandoned, 24km from the finish of stage 18. He couldn’t continue anymore.
US rider Brandon McNulty was hit by a car on his reconnaissance of the Tour de France time trial ahead of stage 16 on Tuesday. The UAE Emirates-XRG rider was riding the 26km course from Évian-les-Bains to Thonon-les-Bains when a car unrelated to the race knocked him to the floor. Team principle Mauro Gianetti confirmed McNulty had been knocked off and told The Athletic: He was just riding his bike with one car behind him. A normal car, we don’t know who they are. And when he (McNulty) overtook, he just stopped the car, and Brandon was unable to prevent himself riding into it.
Contradictory Statements and Rising Tension Inside the Camp
As physical ailments mounted within the squad, mixed messages from team management created further intrigue. Outside the team bus at the start of stage 18, team boss Mauro Gianetti and sporting manager Joxean Fernández Matxin attempted to downplay rumors of widespread illness Cyclingnews reported. At the very same time, Wellens openly discussed his sore throat with reporters, and riders acknowledged that the team had been dining separately in isolation.
This wave of illness and injury is dramatic enough, but UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in their efforts to play down the intrigue, have only hammed it up. Outside the team bus at the start of Thursday’s stage 18, both team boss Mauro Gianetti and sporting manager Joxean Fernández Matxin, played down the early rumours that other riders were coming down with illness.
Adam is not so healthy and I don’t feel so well myself either,
Wellens told Sporza. I have a sore throat, mucus, and I’m not feeling great. But more than half of our team is still in top form.
Compounding the visual speculation, Pogačar notably swapped his usual yellow shorts for black ones during the stage, prompting widespread paddock chatter regarding potential stomach issues as Cycling Weekly observed. An hour later, Tadej Pogačar, dressed in his yellow jersey but curiously in black shorts (you can join the dots), crossed the line in the GC group, flanked by Isaac Del Toro.
Rivals Circle Ahead of the Alpe d’Huez Double Header
Yet with his supporting cast heavily depleted—leaving only fully fit riders like Nils Politt and Felix Großschartner alongside him—the race dynamics have shifted dramatically ahead of the Alpe d’Huez double-header.
The race is poised for two extremely important stages to Alpe d’Huez, with the races on Friday and Saturday tough enough to potentially reshuffle the Tour GC. Pogačar and the UAE Team appeared to be coasting to a fifth Tour de France win but as those stages approach, three of his teammates have been affected by illness and one by injury. Meanwhile Remco Evenepoel is waiting in the wings, the Belgian having taken Sunday’s stage 15 summit finish and then Tuesday’s stage 16 time trial. Those two results narrowed his deficit to 4:32 and while Pogačar still has a comfortable buffer, his team’s weakness will do him no favors. It’s not nice to kick off the coming days like this,
Evenepoel said.
Felix Großschartner was next from the UAE team to be welcomed by his team’s soingeurs at Orcières-Merlette, but he stopped at the top and turned straight around. He wasn’t going to answer questions about the stomach virus in the camp.
Ten minutes later, Nils Politt arrived. He looked fine but neither was he in the game for fluffy comments: he was going to be honest and realistic – UAE have a problem. We have to survive the next two days now,
Politt said. It is a major setback for us as a team,
he said of McNulty’s exit. Pogačar echoed those sentiments: We will miss him the next two days, obviously.
Pogačar himself remains outwardly confident that the remaining squad can weather the storm stating to media that all teams are suffering in the third week and that his team will keep fighting.
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