Furthermore, he had entered his typical downward spiral that occurs when his injuries are more serious than they appear and are worsening.
At first, he could disguise his struggles in uphill sprints, but without explosiveness and basically just surviving (a bit like in this year's Giro before his withdrawal, by the way). Then came the single-climb stage to La Planche, and he is so good in those efforts that he seemed recovered, but surely at 100% he could have won there in 2022 or being super close (he's still capable of third place in 2025 in those stages, far from his best). Later came the sacrifice after serving as bait, and right after that, he could make strong but short pulls in favor of Jonas on stages like the one to Alpe, but even before abandoning he was already starting to get dropped from groups of more than 50 riders at the start in the bearkaway fights.