Published July 3, 2022 09:48AM
Tour de France: Crash sees Haig, Froome, Caruso, Meintjes, and Pinot lose time
Most of the GC riders came through the stage but several potential top-ten contenders lose valuable time.
Illustration picture shows the pack of riders in action during stage three of the Tour de France cycling race, 182km from Vejle to Sonderborg, Denmark on Sunday 03 July 2022. This year's Tour de France takes place from 01 to 24 July 2022 and starts with three stages in Denmark. BELGA PHOTO JASPER JACOBS (Photo by JASPER JACOBS / BELGA MAG / Belga via AFP) (Photo by JASPER JACOBS/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images) (Photo: Getty Images)
A crash with 10km to go saw several potential GC contenders caught out and eventually lose over half a minute on stage 3 of the Tour de France.
The fall took place when the fast-moving peloton hit a stretch of cobbles, and just as the sprinters’ teams were beginning to form their leadout trains.
A touch of wheels only took down a handful of riders but the bottleneck caused by the fall meant that half the peloton were unable to pass. That created a lengthy delay, with Bahrain-Victorious perhaps the team worst affected.
Damiano Caruso and Jack Haig, who both came into the race with hopes of a top-10 overall after impressive grand tour rides in 2021 were both left licking their wounds and forced into a long chase.
Also read: Tour de France stage 3: Dylan Groenewegen snatches victory in four-up photo finish
Rigoberto Uran’s (EF Education EasyPost) Tour de France went from bad to worse after he lost time in the opening time trial and then found himself on the back foot again on stage 2. He too was caught up in the stage 3 fall along with Louis Meintjes, Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Chris Froome, Michael Woods (both Israel-Premier Tech), and Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ). All of the riders limited their losses but still conceded 39 seconds on the stage.
Haig now sits at 1:37 off the race lead, with four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome at 2:02.
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Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) finished second on the stage behind winner Dylan Groenewegen (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) and retained his overall lead in the race.