Tadej Pogacar's bid for a fifth Tour de France title could come under threat with a sickness bug seemingly sweeping through his UAE Team Emirates XRG teammates. "I'm sad that Brandon could not finish," Pogacar admitted to The Guardian after protecting his lead to the finish in Orcieres-Merlette. Key UAE domestiques Tim Wellens and Florian Vermeersch have also been apparently dealing with illness as the Tour nears its conclusion. "We are trying to separate ourselves from the team as much as possible in order to simply minimise the risk. Many riders are ill in the bunch – you hear from every team that there's something going around.