Belgian classics rider's late withdrawal with stomach problems leaves Dutch team shorthanded
The Dutch Rabobank team will start Saturday’s Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian with seven riders instead of eight after the late withdrawal of Nick Nuyens. The Belgian was forced to abandon this week’s Tour de Wallonie with digestive problems, and has not recovered sufficiently to race this weekend; the lateness of his withdrawal means that there is not enough time to arrange a replacement.
“I will not start San Sebastian on Saturday,” said Nuyens, “I’m not recovered from the intestine and stomach problems that made me abandon the last stage of the Tour de Wallonie; it was a viral infection that swept through half the peloton.
“On Wednesday, and that night,” he added, “I was also suffering from muscle pain and a headache; like a man was beating a hammer on my head.”
2010 has not been a great year so far for Nuyens, with punctures, crashes and illness all affecting his classics campaign; his one victory this year came in stage 5 of last month’s Österreich-Rundfahrt. It is also looking increasingly likely that he will not have his contract with the Dutch team renewed, after two disappointing years.
The year has had its compensations though, with Nuyens’ wife Evy Van Damme giving birth to the couple’s second child last month.
With Denis Menchov also missing the race this weekend, declaring himself tired after his third place in the tour de France, the Rabobank team will be built around the hopes of Robert Gesink. To that end the team is packed with climbing domestiques.
The race promises to be tougher than before, with two loops that take in the ascents of the 1st category Alto Jaizkabel and 2nd category Alto Arkale; the second loop coming just 15km from the finish in the Basque city.
Rabobank team for Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian:
Mauricio Ardilla, Laurens ten Dam, Juanma Garate, Robert Gesink, Steven Kruijswijk, Sebastian Langeveld and Grischa Niermann.