Romain Bardet has abandoned the Giro d'Italia due to illness. The Frenchman wheeled to a halt 35km into stage 13 from San Remo to Cuneo, with his DSM team confirming that he had begun to feel ill during the previous afternoon's stage to Genoa.
"We are sad to confirm that Romain Bardet has abandoned the Giro," Team DSM announced on social media.
"After becoming sick during yesterday's stage, his condition worsened overnight and, despite all efforts, he is no longer in a position to continue the race."
Bardet was lying fourth overall, just 14 seconds down on maglia rosa Juan Pedro López (Trek-Segafredo).
Winner of the Tour of the Alps last month, Bardet confirmed his status among the top favourites for this Giro with a strong showing on the Blockhaus on stage 9. There, on the race's second summit finish, he traded accelerations with Richard Carapaz and Mikel Landa on the toughest portion of the climb.
The Frenchman made his Giro debut a year ago, placing seventh overall in Milan, and looked in good shape to battle for the podium or even the win during the remainder of this year's race.
"It was really difficult. He started the stage yesterday and after about 10km he was being sick," DSM race coach Matthew Winston said after the stage. "We looked after him through the stage, trying to keep him cool with ice and water and really look after him and nurse him through the stage.
"He slept the whole way back in the bus after the race. He didn't eat last night, he couldn't eat anything. He was awake all night being sick.
"This morning there was a small chance he could finish today but Romain's a fighter. He wanted to start the stage, he wanted to go for it. But he was already being sick in the neutral and it just wasn't possible to continue."
Winston vowed that the team would continue fighting for more stage wins in addition to the win taken by sprinter Alberto Dainese, and likely the overall with Thymen Arensman – who lies in 11th place, 1:27 down on the race lead – going forward.
"Romain was really ready and we prepared in a really good way in this race. It's super disappointing but we still have option shere. We're not going to give up now, we're going to keep fighting, and we'll see where we come in Verona."
