cracked ribs take ages to recover from, and are a constant reminder at night, disrupting your sleep & recovery. I know theyre probably still using tramadol, but I couldnt see him being more than 80% fit for the TdF, if they took him it would purely be for sponsor reasons. and they hope he gets through to the 2nd week unscathed, and see if others then crack around him, it can happen.
and the ITT thing, maybe it was the Darth Helmet Helmet unbalanced him, as it was like about 3 sizes bigger than his head, but the ITT in the Basque Country race this year, he looked like he'd never ridden an ITT bike before, none of it was smooth, none of it was about measured watts, keeping aero, smooth lines or transitions, and he still finished 4th looking like a complete amateur