Young British GC hope Max Poole will not ride the Vuelta a España after he was diagnosed with Epstein-Barr virus and therefore glandular fever, his Picnic PostNL team announced on Wednesday.
The 22-year-old, who finished 11th overall at the Giro d’Italia this year, and 3rd in the young rider’s classification, was aiming for success at the Vuelta, but will now spend time off the bike recovering.
“It’s been difficult few weeks trying to work out what the situation was and I appreciate the support the team has given me during this period,” Poole said in a press release. “I’m pretty relieved to now understand the root of the problem as it means that I can start to focus on recovery and getting my health back on track. I’m really disappointed to miss the team at the Vuelta, and wish them the best of luck there.”
“Max didn’t come away from altitude feeling as we’d hoped, and when he continued to decline during Poland we removed him from the race on medical grounds to conduct thorough investigations,” Picnic PostNL head coach Rudi Kemna said. “Now that we know the full extent of his illness, our focus is simply on looking after him and giving him the time and support he needs to recover fully.”
“We’ve been looking into the possible reasons for Max’s health problems over the past few weeks, and today we confirmed that he has Epstein-Barr virus with glandular fever,” the team’s doctor, Camiel Aldershof, added. “Sadly, this means he’ll need a longer period of rest while we work on getting him back to full health. Now we know what’s behind his symptoms, we can start moving in the right direction with his recovery.”
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