Boasson Hagen's Tour in doubt as he contracts shingles

Edvald Boasson Hagen has contracted shingles and is a doubt for the Tour de France, Norweigan newspaper Aftenposten has reported.

Boasson Hagen has withdrawn from the Norweigan championships road race on Sunday and was showing symptoms of shingles as he defended his national time trail title yesterday, the paper reports.

A Team Sky spokesperson told Cycling Weekly confirmed that he was ill and said that "as a precautionary measure, Edvald has withdrawn from the national road race this weekend due to illness."

The team is monitoring his condition, although they also said that "at this stage though there is no change to the Tour de France team."

Shingles is a viral disease related to chickenpox that causes extremely sensitive skin rashes as well as fever, headaches and enlarged lymph nodes.

Boasson Hagen was preparing to ride his second Tour with Sky in July. He has already missed part of the season after sustaining an injury in the Scheldeprijs.

Related links

Tour de France 2011: Cycling Weekly's coverage index