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Tom Pidcock has been forced to leave the Tour de France after experiencing Covid-19 symptoms in a potential blow to his Olympic hopes.
The Ineos Grenadiers announced that the British rider will not start Stage 14 in the Pyrenees with illness striking the peloton in recent days.
Pidcock had narrowly missed out on victory last Sunday, pipped on the line by Anthony Turgis in Troyes having survived the gruelling gravel of Stage 9.
The 24-year-old had hoped to challenge again in the mountains as the Tour weaved towards a final time trial in Nice, but will now look to recuperate ahead of a double medal bid at Paris 2024.
The defending Olympic champion in mountain biking is also set to contest the road race in the French capital having been named in a strong Team GB squad.
“A disappointed Tom Pidcock will not line up for stage 14 of the Tour de France today,” Ineos confimed on social media. “Tom is experiencing symptoms of Covid-19 and under advice from our medical team will now return home to recover.”
Fellow Olympic entrant Fred Wright also appeared to be struggling with illness at the Tour, finishing over the time limit in the Massif Central on Wednesday after battling impressively to complete Stage 11.
Pidcock’s ambitious attempt at double success in Paris is made more straightforward by a relatively kind schedule, with the men’s cross-country mountain biking held on Monday July 29, five days before the road race.
Some former riders and Ineos themselves have previously advised him to give up mountain biking to prioritise his burgeoning career on the road, but Pidcock insists he will continue to balance the different disciplines to try and make the most of his talent.
“I think anything that wasn’t my choice would be detrimental to me as a bike rider,” Pidcock told the Press Association earlier this year. “I don’t do anything well that I don’t enjoy.
“The road incorporates many different types of riders and I want to do well on the road. I see myself as a road rider, but if you really had to say what sort of rider I am, it’s mountain bike. It’s the one I enjoy without fail.
“I could never see myself winning five back-to-back Tours or anything like that. I need fresh things. If I won everything once, that’s better than a lot of a few things.
“I’ve won Strade, Amstel, a stage of the Tour, I’m Olympic champion, a world champion in cross and on the mountain bike. If I can win a Monument or the worlds on the road, even if I’m just on the podium in the Tour, that’s a career that no one else has been able to have.”
