Robert Gesink left the Tour de France on Thursday evening. He is the fifth Rabo rider to do so. After consulting the team management he decided not to take the start in the twelfth stage tomorrow. Gesink was the first attacker in Thursday’s Queen stage but he quickly got into trouble on the Col de la Madeleine. Eventually he reached the finish 29 minutes later than today’s winner.

Gesink, but also Mollema, Bram Tankink, Laurens ten Dam and Steven Kruijswijk were involved in the big peloton crash on Friday. In the end this crash cost over 20 riders their spot in the Tour-peloton. The injuries the Rabo riders sustained seemed to be not so bad at first glance. But in the days following the crash it became clear the consequences of the crash were bothering them. They hoped that it would improve after Tuesday’s rest day but that was not the case. Gesink: “These injuries keep bothering me. You won’t physically overcome that on the men that are on form.”

It’s his rib cage that’s troubling the Rabobank team captain the most. “When I really go deep and breathe heavily, it stings tremendously. The ribs and the muscles around it have took a big blow. During the Tour de France you don’t get the time to recover from this. It is really annoying. It feels as if I am riding around on a flat rear tyre. I just miss the power, the power I need and that was absolutely there in the first days of the Tour. It is not a sensible idea to keep riding for a sixtieth place in the overall. I’d better focus on recharging for the Vuelta now.”