The Tour de France is brutal: Lutsenko in tears after quitting, Gaviria and Bennett also give up

Alexey Lutsenko is the latest to abandon the Tour de France. The Kazakh had been trailing at the back since the start of the seventeenth stage and somewhat incredulously got off his bike after just over fifty kilometers. He stood by the side of the road and then burst into tears. A tragic image of a man who had clearly hoped for much more this year.

We know Lutsenko as the rider who won a stunning mountain stage at Mont Aigoual in 2020. Additionally, the Astana rider finished in the top ten twice: seventh in 2021, and ninth the following year. Lutsenko was competing in his ninth Tour de France, having only failed to finish once before, in 2013. This year, the all-rounder wasn’t even in the top hundred. Now, his Tour is over.

With Lutsenko, the number of withdrawals on this day has now reached three. Phil Bauhaus has gone home, as a sprinter with little left to look forward to. Elmar Reinders, a new father, also did not start again.

Gaviria also opts to abandon on behalf of Movistar, Bennett also succumbs to the futile exercise

Lutsenko was not the only one to get off his bike during the race; Fernando Gaviria also quit during the first climbing phase. The Colombian sprinter, as reported by his team via social media, was thinking about the Olympic Games and chose to play it safe. He was later followed by the Irishman Sam Bennett. We saw the sprinter from Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale riding ahead of the broom wagon early on, and he gave up shortly thereafter.