Julian Alaphilippe (France) has become the first high-profile abandon of the elite men's road race in the 2025 World Championships on Sunday.
The former double World Champion quit the race after just 31 kilometres of racing.
He made a couple of surprise digs off the front of the peloton, presumably to get an exact gauge on how bad his condition was, and then dropped back through the team cars to quit.
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Alaphilippe, 33, has had a rollercoaster year in 2025, with the abandon in the World Championships the latest chapter. He was later reported to suffering from food poisoning.
Victory in the GP de Québec, his first in over a year, preceded an abandon in the GP de Montréal, his previous race to the World Championships in Kigali.
Alaphilippe won the Worlds elite men's road race in both 2020 and 2021. However, in the 2024 event, Alaphilippe abandoned early on, after injuring his left shoulder in a crash.
Prior to Alaphilippe's early exit, reportedly due to sickness, the Netherlands reported that climber Sam Oomen was a DNS because of illness, reducing their number of starters to five.
Following Alaphilippe's abandon, France will now pin their hopes mainly on outsiders like Pavel Sivakov and Valentin Paret-Peintre, as well as seeing how much of an impact their new young star Paul Seixas can have in the 19-year-old's debut in the elite men's World Championships.
Marc Soler (Spain) and Ilan van Wilder (Belgium) abandon
Shortly after Alaphilippe was confirmed as quitting, a high-speed downhill crash at the rear of the peloton saw several riders go down, including Ilan van Wilder (Belgium) and Spain's Marc Soler.
A bronze medallist in the time trial earlier this week and viewed as a potential outside challenger in the road race or lieutenant for main contender Remco Evenepoel, Van Wilder tried to continue, shaking his wrist in pain. But finally, after a lap of slow pedalling - and not helped by the surprisingly fast early pace of the race- he had to pull out.
Soler had already opted for a more immediate abandon, while Bjoern Koerdt (GB) was another of the crash victims who had to quit.
France suffered another setback when Alaphilippe's teammate Louis Barré then pulled out some 30 kilometres later, for unspecified reasons. Others looking to be in difficulties as the 267 kilometre race reached its third hour included Australia's Luke Plapp.
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