Marijn van den Berg will not start the tenth stage of the Tour de France on Monday. The 25-year-old from Utrecht has been cycling with pain for over a week after a crash in the first stage.
Van den Berg is the first Dutch rider to drop out of this Tour de France. There are still twelve compatriots left in the Tour peloton.
Van den Berg crashed hard in the final of the first stage. The sprinter was in the first group and seemed on his way to a good result until he suddenly lay on the asphalt.
The rider of EF Education-EasyPost went to the hospital for X-rays. He turned out to have no fractures, but his calf had to be stitched. In addition, he suffered a lot from his left hip.
Van den Berg stayed in the Tour but could no longer play a significant role. On Sunday, he finished 158th in the ninth stage. In the general classification, he was 155th, over an hour behind yellow jersey wearer Tadej Pogacar.
Van den Berg won two races this year
Van den Berg has now decided to go home. “He is suffering too much from the injuries he sustained in the first stage,” EF Education-EasyPost reports on X.
Van den Berg won two races this year. He was the best in the Spanish one-day race Trofeo Ses Salines and he triumphed in a stage in the Route d’Occitanie. The Dutchman was participating in his second Tour.
The Tour de France continues on Monday without Van den Berg with a tough mountain stage in the Massif Central. The tenth stage starts at 13:10 in Ennezat. The finish at Le Mont-Dore is expected around 17:30.