Published March 10, 2022 10:11AM
Before the fifth stage even started at Paris-Nice 18 riders were already listed as “DNS”, did not start. Among those unable to compete on Thursday was the recent Le Samyn winner Matteo Trentin, Dylan Groenewegen, Yves Lampaert, Neilson Powless, Gino Mäder, and Zdenek Štybar. The list includes riders from Alpecin-Fenix, Team BikeExchange, Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl, Israel-Premier Tech, EF Education-EasyPost, UAE Team Emirates, Team Arkéa Samsic, AG2R Citroë, Team DSM, Bora-Hansgrohe, and Bahrain-Victorious.
In addition to those missing out on stage 5, neither Ben O’Connor nor Maximilian Schachmann started the stage 4 time trial on Wednesday.
Both Štybar and Lampaert of Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl left due to illness, according to the team’s Twitter.
In fact, most of the non-starts are due to non-covid illnesses. Tom Van Ashbroeck did not start due to a respiratory infection, one of three Israel-Premier Tech who didn’t make it to the line. Only Hugo Houle pulled on the white and blue colours of Israel-Premier Tech for stage 5.
Alpecin-Fenix sent Jonas Rickaert home to get scans of his lower back. “I have to go home for a scan of my lower back,” Rickaert said on Twitter. “Because of a sleepy feeling in my left leg I’m not able to perform on this level the last three days.”
Groenewegen was the victim of a crash on stage 2, the side effects of which caused his team to remove him from competition for the remainder of the week.
The full list of non-starters:
Clément Champoussin (AG2R Citroën)
Kristian Sbaragli, Jay Vine, Jonas Rickaert (Alpecin-Fenix)
Amaury Capiot (Team Arkéa Samsic)
Dylan Groenewegen (Team BikeExchange)
Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates)
Yves Lampaert, Zdenek Štybar (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl)
Kevin Vermaerke (Team DSM)
Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe)
Cark Fredrik Hagen, Tom Van Asbroeck, James Piccoli (Israel-Premier Tech)
Gino Mäder (Bahrain-Victorious)
Stefan Bissegger, Neilson Powless, Jens Keukeleire (EF Education-EasyPost)
This story is ongoing…