Primoz Roglic lost nearly two minutes of lead over his main pursuers in the Tour de France on Thursday after suffering a crash near the finish line. Biniam Girmay took advantage of the situation to claim a third stage victory.
Roglic hit the pavement about 12 kilometres from the finish line, after a cyclist in front of him collided with street furniture and lost control of his bike. Roglic was unable to avoid the collision, and hit the tarmac like several other cyclists.
It was the second incident in 24 hours involving Roglic, a four-time Tour de France champion. He got back in the saddle and struggled to get back into the rhythm at the back of the peloton, before being helped by his Bora-Hansgrohe teammates to reach the finish line. He lost two minutes and 27 seconds to Girmay, and dropped to sixth overall.
Ontario’s Derek Gee of Team Israel-Premier Tech was the top Canadian cyclist in his 29e place. His teammates, Quebecers Hugo Houle and Guillaume Boivin, followed at 73e and 77e levels, respectively.
Girmay, who became the first black cyclist to win a stage of the Tour de France earlier this month, edged out Wout van Aert and Arnaud Démare to extend his lead at the top of the sprinter’s standings.
“First of all, I want to thank God for giving me the strength and power,” Girmay said. “Without God, we couldn’t do anything, so I’m super happy. I joined Mike [Teunissen, son coéquipier de l’équipe Intermarche-Wanty] with 600 meters to go and he did a great job, he allowed me to move from 15e place in the top three, and from that point on my fate was in my own hands.”
Two-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar retained the yellow jersey as leader, saying he was “devastated” when he heard that Roglic, a fellow Slovenian, had crashed.
“It’s really sad to hear that he crashed today. I hope he recovers. Usually he’s a warrior, so maybe he’ll bounce back and win some stages,” Pogacar said.
The latter has a cushion of 1:06 ahead of Remco Evenepoel, while two-time defending champion Jonas Vingegaard is third at 1:14.
Gee is still 11e in the cumulative ranking, 7:54 behind Pogacar, while Houle and Boivin are 53e and 132ein order.
The accident affected the set-up of the final sprint, particularly for Matthieu Van der Poel, who was ejected from the main peloton and was unable to set the stage for his teammate Jasper Philipsen.
The 12e The stage took the peloton 204 km between Aurillac and Villeneuve-sur-Lot in southwestern France.
There was an early breakaway, but Jonas Abrahamsen, Quentin Pacher and Valentin Madouas were swallowed up by the peloton after 162 km.
Morkov tests positive for COVID-19
Denmark’s Michael Morkov has contracted COVID-19 and as a result has had to withdraw from the Tour de France before the start of the 12th round.e stage.
The 39-year-old veteran tested positive for the virus Wednesday night and again Thursday morning.
“Despite the fact that the cyclist feels well and does not present any particular symptoms, the medical staff of the Astana team has taken the decision to withdraw him from the competition,” read a statement from the Kazakh team.
Morkov will officially retire at the end of the campaign.
He won a stage at the Vuelta a España in 2013 and the gold medal in the Madison at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. He is also due to compete at the Paris Olympics.
– With The Canadian Press