Those dudes are probably used to eat 5,000 kcal a day and that's probably harder to quit than riding the bike for 4-5h a day.Rumor has it he set a new personal record on his test climb before leaving for Colombia. A shame he fell ill as he surely would have crushed this race but at least he lost a couple of pounds over the last few days or so we assume.
On a serious note, I saw some pictures pop up from early 2018 a few weeks ago. Gods he was pudgy then.