Some guys have all the luck, unfortunately the American Jonathan Vaughters is not one of them.

He has been forced out of the Tour by misfortune for the third year running, this time after being stung by a wasp on Monday's rest day.

The sting was near his eye and caused his face to blow up like a balloon, affecting his vision on one side.

Normally such a problem would be straightforward to resolve.

But Vaughters was not allowed to have the necessary injection because he would then have failed a dope test.

Unwanted hat-trick

How frustrating to have come so far, yet be denied by something so trivial and easy to rectify.

It is not as if he would have suddenly been full of performance-enhancing drugs, nor was he a threat to the overall leaders.

This completes an unwanted hat-trick for Vaughters, who crashed out of the Tour in the two previous years of the race.

Once in the infamous Passage Du Gois incident and once in the mountains.

Let us hope it is fourth time lucky for him and that he returns next year and has a trouble-free race.

You would not bet on it, though, would you?