Talansky was among the pre-race favourites coming into the Dauphiné after a number of strong showings earlier in the season. However, on Thursday the American came down with an illness and on today's first stage he was forced to drop back on the penultimate climb.
“Andrew had stomach problems,” Garmin-Sharp’s Geert Van Bondt told Cyclingnews.
“With a hard stage like today it was very difficult for him. He was under pressure on the climbs and was vomiting. He had a pretty bad day actually.”
“He’s not been feeling great since Thursday but he thought he was over the worst. Then today with the climbs it was clear he wasn’t 100 per cent. We’re just hoping that over the next couple of days he’ll be getting better and better and towards the end of the race he can be 100 per cent.”
David Veilleux now leads the race with Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank) and Chris Froome (Team Sky) over two minutes down.
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Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.
