World champion Michal Kwiatkowski and Tejay Van Garderen pulled out of the Tour de France Wednesday.

Pole Kwiatkowski, 25, had been struggling in the stage and inside the final 35km the news came confirming the Etixx-Quick Step rider was out. American Van Garderen had been sitting third in the overall standings at 3min 32sec back from race leader Chris Froome.

But only 60km into the first Alpine stage of the race, Van Garderen started to struggle and lost touch with the peloton. The 26-year-old BMC team leader, who was second to Froome in last month’s Criterium du Dauphine, was suffering from headaches.

He dropped two minutes behind but his teammates helped him back up to the peloton, only for an acceleration from Alberto Contador to see Van Garderen dropped again and, with 70km still to ride, he climbed off his bike. 

Meanwhile, it has emerged that interest in the Tour de France is growing worldwide despite cycling’s battle with doping, but the host nation is bucking trend, according to a study by Repucom sports data company.

Globally there has been a rise, with 23 percent of people saying they follow Tour news, up from 20 percent in 2012. Repucom said it polled 11,000 people across 11 countries. It found France was the only country to record a drop, from 33 per cent of the population in 2012 to 32 percent now. In the United States, interest has grown four percentage points to 18 percent of the population.