{"id":708329,"date":"2026-07-24T05:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T05:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/708329\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T05:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T05:51:10","slug":"an-injury-is-holding-me-back-florian-vermeersch-injury-compounds-uae-team-emirates-xrg-woes-at-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/708329\/","title":{"rendered":"‘An injury is holding me back’ – Florian Vermeersch injury compounds UAE Team Emirates-XRG woes at Tour de France"},"content":{"rendered":"

A fresh setback at UAE Team Emirates-XRG for Tour de France<\/a> leader Tadej Poga\u010dar’s teammates emerged after Thursday’s summit finish stage when support rider Florian Vermeersch<\/a> said that he has been fighting the effects of an unspecified injury.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar is close to claiming a record-equalling fifth victory in the Tour and has a lead of over four and half minutes on closest rival Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), but two massive mountain stages remain between him and the overall triumph on Sunday in Paris and the illnesses and injuries amongst his teammates continue to stack up.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“I didn’t have my best day. I’m struggling a bit with an injury and that is holding me back. Although it is relative, because I have seen that other teammates have suffered more,” Vermeersch, 31:52 down on stage winner Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and 113th at the finish line, told Sporza.<\/p>\n

Latest Videos From<\/p>\n

Vermeersch, a hugely talented Classics specialist brought to the Tour by UAE Team Emirates mainly to work in the first half of stages and on less hilly terrain, would never have been expected to finish higher up at a category 1 summit finish like Orci\u00e8res-Merlette.<\/p>\n

But the news of his injury is just the latest blow suffered by Poga\u010dar’s support riders, coming as it did on a day when his teammates Brandon McNulty abandoned<\/a> because of illness and Tim Wellens only made the time cut by two minutes<\/a> and in last place on the stage.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

A fourth UAE rider, 2023 Tour podium finisher and high mountains expert Adam Yates, is also on the backfoot<\/a>, having suffered badly on stages 16 and 17, although Poga\u010dar said on Thursday that the British climber was now improving and should be OK for Saturday’s crunch day through the Alps.<\/p>\n

Vermeersch was keen too, to show that at the very least he was not ill, telling Sporza, “I am not sick. I feel good, fortunately. So that is not a problem for me.”<\/p>\n

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s biggest bike race deserves world-class coverage. Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our unrivalled reporting of the 2026 Tour de France. From Barcelona through to Paris, our experienced team will bring you breaking news, expert insight, and in-depth coverage from every stage as the battle for the yellow jersey plays out. Plus, access the Cyclingnews app to follow the action on the go! Find out more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fresh setback at UAE Team Emirates-XRG for Tour de France leader Tadej Poga\u010dar’s teammates emerged after Thursday’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-708329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}