After suffering in a cold on the Tour de Romandie queen stage yesterday and, as a result, finishing over thirty minutes behind a duo of Christopher Froome (Team Sky) and Simon Spilak (Katusza), Michał Kwiatkowski together with the Omega Pharma-Quick Step menagement decided it was a high time to take a well-deserved break following the successful spring campaign and thus the young Pole abandoned the Swiss race.

The 23-year old Pole admitted that he entered the Swiss event with huge motivation to make a good result, additionally boosted by his outstanding performance in the opening short prologue. However, every next day of competition made him realize how fatigued he was following his busy and highly successful spring campaign, what eventually forced him out of the Tour de Romandie ahead of today’s stage.

"I came into this race with good expectations," Kwiatkowski said, according to Omega Pharma-Quick step official website.

"I had immediately the leader's jersey after winning the prologue. So, after that the team worked for me for the GC and I said 'why not, let's try to do something good here.' As each stage passed, however, I understood I was really tired after a long period of racing at a high level.”

“I've been racing since Trofeo Mallorca. Now it's really the time to stop and recharge my batteries. I have to thank the team for letting me take these two extra days of recovery. I will spend them at home, so it's really worth it as I've only been home for five days since January.”

“In any case, this first part of the season will be something I remember for a long time. I've had several career milestones, including my victory at Strade Bianche, my performances at the Ardennes Classics, and my first UCI WorldTour victory at Tour de Romandie. The feeling was always good, as if my performances were happening easily even if they were actually far from it. I had great support from the team and my teammates. I always felt the confidence around me which was really nice. I started a few races as captain, which was completely new for me.”

“We can say that in this first part of the season I learned a lot, and I enjoyed my time, but now it is really the perfect moment to back off, recover and spend time with my family at home before I start focusing on the next races."