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Arguably Skinny was stopped for even more than 36hours for his infection. He stopped for c.36 hours in Clermont-Ferrand then rode for a day (maybe 12 hours) before another full nights rest and recuperation (c.10hrs) just before the swiss border. So far as I can tell it was only after that that he decided to put the hammer down and race for top 10.
Counterfactuals of what the race situation would have been like had skinny not been ill are always going to be a bit of a fudge, especially since the added rest could conceivably mean he is fresher than other riders like Kristof who hasn't yet stopped for longer than about 5hrs.
Even so I do think it's interesting to wonder 'what might have been'... especially since skinny was only 31.5hrs behind Kristof at CP3!!
Ultan would have rested up at some stage during that 36 hr period - nevertheless extremely impressive particularly as many would have scratched when they realised that a win was unlikely #truegrit