Australia's Michael Matthews has been forced to quit the Tour de France due to illness.
The Sunweb rider, last year's green point jersey winner, pulled out of the race on the morning of the fifth stage from Lorient to Quimper after waking with a fever.
A final decision was taken shortly before the stage got underway, with the Canberran reluctantly pulling the pin following the advice of team doctors.
"Early this morning, the doctor had an early call from (Matthews) to say that he had to throw up," said Sunweb sports director Luke Roberts.
"He had difficulty getting back to sleep and couldn't eat his breakfast, and the fever is developing more and more.
"We've had a doctor with him all morning, just monitoring his progress.
"He was isolated from the rest of the team, just in case something could spread.
"The doctors monitored him and saw his condition was going downhill. He has a fever that is continuing to rise, so he's not in a condition to start a bike race. The doctors made the decision not to start him."
