Mathieu van der Poel leaves Tour de Suisse through illness

Tour de Suisse 2021 - 85th Edition - 4th stage Sankt Urban - Gstaad 171 km - 09/06/2021 - Mathieu Van Der Poel (NED - Alpecin-Fenix) - photo Peter De Voecht/PN/BettiniPhoto©2021
(Image credit: Bettini Photo)

After two stage wins and a day in the leader's yellow jersey, Mathieu van der Poel will play no further part in the Tour de Suisse, leaving the race through illness ahead of stage 6. 

The Alpecin-Fenix team revealed on Friday morning that the Dutchman is suffering from a 'mild cold' and that they didn't want to take any risks with the Tour de France and Olympics coming up. 

Patrick Fletcher

Patrick is a freelance sports writer and editor. He’s an NCTJ-accredited journalist with a bachelor’s degree in modern languages (French and Spanish). Patrick worked full-time at Cyclingnews for eight years between 2015 and 2023, latterly as Deputy Editor.