‘Hopefully I can find joy from riding my bike’: Michał Kwiatkowski will skip next race after disappointing Tour de France

Michał Kwiatkowski will skip his next race after struggling through the 2019 season, which resulted in a disappointing performance at the Tour de France.

The Team Ineos all-rounder, a Monument winner who has been one of the team’s most valuable assets in recent Tours, hasn’t won a race this year.

Kwiatkowski was unrecognisable at this year’s Tour de France, being dropped early on the climbs where he had previously been an engine for Team Ineos deep into mountain stages.

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He will now skip his home race, the Tour of Poland, saying this season “has not been what he dreamed of.”

View this post on Instagram

I'm not a guy who likes to change his plans but unfortunately this is one of those moments. As much as I love Tour de Pologne and cherish memories from last year, I will not participate in this year's edition. I know now, straight after finishing Tour de France, that recovery, is what my body was suggesting me probably since very long time. So far it wasn't the season I was dreaming of and this is a good time for reflection and thinking about my preparation, combining heavy racing in 2018 and trying to step up from that in particular. Hopefully soon I will be able to find a joy from riding my bike and I'm sure that from there on I will win again some big races. Have a great Tour de Pologne everyone! It’s a very difficult decision to miss that amazing feeling of racing in front of Polish fans. I will be watching and hoping my teammates put on a great show. @tourdepologne @teamineos 📷 PAP/EPA

A post shared by Michał Kwiatkowski (@kwiato) on Jul 30, 2019 at 3:00am PDT

The 29-year-old said: “I’m not a guy who likes to change his plans but unfortunately this is one of those moments.

“As much as I love the Tour of Poland and cherish from last year, I will not participate in this year’s edition. Straight after finishing the Tour de France I know now that my body has needed to recover for a long time.

“So far this hasn’t been the season I was dreaming of and this is a good time for reflection and thinking about my preparation.

“Hopefully soon I will be able to find a joy from riding my bike and I’m sure that from there on I will win some big races again.”

Kwiatkowski, who won the 2018 edition of the Tour of Poland, said he thinks the combination of heavy racing last season and the training to improve on his results in 2019 may have contributed to his poor performance this year.

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The former world champion had been consistently stepping up in recent years, winning Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo in 2017 before focusing on stage races in 2018, winning the Volta Ao Algarve, Tirreno-Adriatico and the Tour of Poland.

Kwiatkowski hopes to become a Grand Tour contender, having led Team Sky at last year’s Vuelta a España, but only finishing 43rd overall.