The UAE Team Emirates pair of Jay Vine and George Bennett have both been forced to abandon the Tour de Suisse due to crashes.
Vine withdrew after he was among the fallers on stage 4 to Leukerbad, while Bennett was a non-starter on stage 5 due to lingering effect of the injuries he sustained in a crash on Monday.
"Unfortunately George Bennett will not start at the Tour de Suisse today following his crash on stage 2. He will head back home to recover," read a statement from UAE Team Emirates on Thursday.
The New Zealander had been training in Sierra Nevada in recent weeks with UAE Team Emirates' Tour de France squad. He was part of Tadej Pogačar's supporting guard at last year's Tour, where he was forced out of the race after testing positive for COVID-19 on the first rest day.
"Absolute dog of a sport sometimes. Game over here at Swiss after a filthy crash on stage 1," Bennett wrote in a post on Instagram.
"I'm optimistic the damage isn't anything that a few days on the couch won't fix and I should be good to go again in a few days. Obviously a big disappointment after putting so much into this period but it’s part of the game and I can't help but feel a little bit lucky to be able to ride away from a crash at that speed."
Bennett's abandon follows that of his teammate Vine, who suffered a "suspected subluxation of his right shoulder and abrasions to his leg" in his crash on stage 4. UAE Team Emirates said that the Australian would undergo further scans on Thursday to assess his injuries.
Vine was riding the Tour de Suisse after making his Giro d'Italia debut in May. Although his general classification challenge ended on the frozen descent of the Colle delle Radici on stage 10, Vine recovered to play a key role in helping João Almeida in the final week en route to third overall in Rome.
