Published June 28, 2021 03:53PM
Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) finished stage 3 of the Tour de France over a minute down and with several scrapes and bruises after taking a heavy fall inside the final 10 km of the race.
The 31-year-old Slovenian went down in an apparent collision with Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Victorious) on the left side of the peloton as it made its way toward a sprinter-friendly finish in Pontivy, only a minute or two after other riders had gone down in a separate crash at the back of the bunch.
The fall left Roglic with several torn sections of his kit and road rash in multiple places, and he spent several moments on the ground recovering his bearings, while the gap to the peloton grew up towards one minute
After getting back on the bike, Roglič linked up with several teammates and then went into chase mode. The Jumbo-Visma pursuers were able to bring the gap back down under a minute, but further crashes in the peloton in the last several kilometers made for slow going at parts, and Roglic’s group was further distanced as the pace reached its maximum with the sprint teams lining up in the finale.
Roglič would ultimately arrive 1:21 down on stage winner Tim Merlier (Alpecin-Fenix), putting him at the same deficit behind Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers), the best-placed GC star on the day. The 2020 Tour runner-up would cede less time to last year’s Tour winner and a few other GC rivals, as Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) finished 26 seconds down on the day, and thus 55 seconds ahead of Roglič.
Jumbo-Visma said after the stages that medical checks had determined that Roglič had not suffered any broken bones in the crash, though it remains to be seen how the scrapes and bruises he did sustain in the fall will affect him moving forward.
Unfortunately for Jumbo-Visma, Roglič was not the only member of the team to hit the deck on the day. Steven Kruijswijk required stitches to treat a finger injury after crashing midway through the stage, while Robert Gesink abandoned with a broken collarbone after a hard fall, leaving Roglič short a key domestique for the mountains.