Cannondale Pro Cycling announced today that Andrew Talansky will not compete in this year’s Tour de France, choosing instead to take the reins of the green argyle team at the Vuelta a Espana in September.
"It was not always the plan to skip the Tour," Talansky said in today's announcement. "However, a bit of background is necessary to explain how we arrived to that decision. I had a very personal issue — you could call it a family crisis — in February, shortly after arriving to Europe. It was a very traumatic and difficult few weeks, and it basically meant that for three weeks the bike was the last thing I was thinking about. Family always comes first."
Talansky, who re-signed with Cannondale for 2017, started his season at the Tour de San Luis in January. He then competed in France at Tour La Provence and Paris-Nice, where he crashed at the end of stage 6 and was forced to abandon. He fell ill soon afterward and underwent treatment for during the month of April for a chronic sinus inflammation that had been affecting his performance.
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"I have had quite a few episodes of getting sick over the past couple years, so the medical staff decided to help me dive into looking for a possible reason," he said. "We ended up doing sinus scans that showed significant blockage and chronic inflammation, which indicated that I was very susceptible to repeated upper respiratory tract infections that could then progress into a more severe illness. That is exactly what I had been experiencing."
The team said that Slipstream CEO Jonathan Vaughters began looking at the Vuelta as an alternative to the Tour while Talansky was undergoing the antibiotic treatments.
Talansky continued to train and race while he was being treated, competing at the Tour de Romandie, where he finished 105th overall. He said he finished the anitbiotics the day after Romandie ended, and he could feel his strength returning. He rode the Tour of California in support of teammate Lawson Craddock’s GC efforts, placing second to Rohan Dennis (BMC) in the Folsom time trial and eventually finishing fourth overall.
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