Team Sunweb physician Camiel Aldershof provides further explanation: “Sam has been diagnosed with Iliac Artery Flow Limitation in his left leg. He was suffering a loss of power in his leg and in pain as a result, leading us to investigate the reasons behind over the past months. In an attempt to solve the issues we tried numerous treatments such as physical and manual therapy, alongside adjusting his position on the bike. Throughout the process he was still able to get some good results which gave us confidence towards his late call up for his role at the Giro, but after all of our conservative methods of treatment were to no prevail, we decided that surgery would be the only option to permanently solve the issue. It will take him a relatively long time to recover, and we already consider this season to be over to give him sufficient time to do so.” Sam said: “I found out just before the Giro that I was suffering from Iliac Artery Limitation, which answered some questions that I had been having over the last couple of months about my left leg. I was still able to train well, and do decent races like in Tirreno and Algarve, but during TT’s, key moments and real high intensity efforts I suffered a lot; my leg simply wasn’t working as it should. My season is done which is mentally a big setback but the fact that the cause of the suffering has been found and hopefully will be solved is a relief. Sometimes you need to take one step back to be able to make two forward and I hope thats what I’m going to do now.”