Sylvain Chavanel finding difficulties to convince his team about the illness
Sylvain Chavanel of Team Omega Pharma-Quick Step abandoned the Tour de France on Monday after having a severe chest infection.
The cyclist struggled during the French race and could not really perform to his capabilities in the earlier stages of the contest.
He was amongst the six riders who struggled to finish the 158.5 kilometre stage 15 and decided to throw in the towel on his Tour de France goals.
Chavanel was holding the 61st overall position after the stage 14 classifications and was more than an hour behind the race leader, Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky.
The French has also briefed that it was very difficult for him to convince the management about his illness.
"I had the impression that Omega Pharma-Quick Step did not believe that I am sick," Chavanel told L'Equipe.
He briefed that there are quite a few people in his team who believes that he is faking the sickness and it was only the hot temperature that he actually has problems with.
"And those are the same people who had earlier been in my room to come and congratulate me on my perseverance. I do not like the hypocrisy," he noted.
Sylvain cited that his major goal of the year is the 2012 Olympic Games and he was riding the Tour to fine-tune ahead of the London’s event but the sickness ruined his plans.
"I'm disappointed because I wanted to ride all the way to Paris in preparation for the Olympics. The last few days I had the impression that some did not believe I was sick”.
"I heard here and there the accusation that I'm only going home to better prepare for the Olympics". The French joined Team Quick Step in 2009 after marking his professional debut with Team Bonjour in 2000.
He spent a period of five years with the side and signed a four-year contract (2005-08) with Team Cofidis.
Chavanel is continuing his fourth consecutive season with the Belgian team and has helped the side with numerous top class performances in the past seasons.
He still has Olympics in sights and is optimistic to recover in time to represent his nation at the most esteemed sporting event of the year, the Olympic Games.
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