Aspen resident Tejay Van Garderen had to unfortunately withdraw from the Tour de France during Wednesday’s 17th stage due to illness.

Coming into Stage 17, 26-year-old Van Garderen was comfortably in third place in the general classification, 3 minutes and 32 seconds behind tour leader Chris Froome.

Everything went wrong during Tuesdays’ rest day and it was apparent during the 161km stage on Wednesday, that Van Garderen was not himself. After losing contact early with the leaders in the first stage in the Alps, it was noticeable that something was wrong.

Soon enough, his BMC Racing Team said he was suffering from headaches, and halfway through the stage Van Garderen abandoned the Tour de France.

This is extremely sad for cycling fans as well as for the Tour de France. With only three American riders in this year’s Tour, Van Garderen was putting together a great performance. Van Garderen had been hoping to become the first American on the podium since Lance Armstrong, who was stripped of his record seven victories and his third place in 2009 for doping.

Add the fact that there are only 4 stages remaining, to come this far and not be able to finish the Tour must be bitterly disappointing for Van Garderen.

For all the other participating riders, Stage 17 was another stage that saw attack after attack come Chris Froome’s way with the Briton fending off every challenge.

Simon Geschke of Germany used a solo break at the end to win his fist ever Tour de France stage.

Letour summarized Stage 17:

In his third participation, Simon Geschke (Giant-Alpecin), 29, claimed his first Tour de France stage victory and the third success of his career after stage 2 of the 2011 Critérium International in Porto-Vecchio and the GP Gippingen in 2014. Known as a domestique, he rode away from a breakaway group with 50km to go and stayed away at col d’Allos to keep enough of a lead over of Thibaut Pinot who crashed in the downhill. Chris Froome retained the yellow jersey as he crossed the line along with Nairo Quintana, while Alberto Contador was the main loser of the favorites, also due to a crash in the descent of col d’Allos.

Here is the overall standing after stage 17:

The 30-year-old Team Sky leader, Froome, continues to hold onto his commanding lead, and now with only 4 stages to go, barring an injury or crash, the Tour de France winner appears to be nearly decided.

Sammy Mugharbil, a Mile High Sports intern and student at MSU-Denver contributed to this report