Team TotalEnergies rider Daniel Oss has been forced to retire from the Tour de France following an incident with a roadside spectator in yesterday's cobbled stage to Arenberg.
The team confirmed his departure in a Tweet on Thursday morning. "Additional examinations revealed a fracture of a vertebrae requiring immobilization for a few weeks. Daniel Oss is therefore forced to leave the Tour de France…" the team wrote.
Oss, 35, collided with the fan on the stage from Lille to Arenberg, which traversed 11 cobbled sectors along its route.
The collision occurred on sector 3, with Oss clipping the fan who had stepped slightly out into his path. Remarkably, Oss finished the stage, despite the accident.
Stage 5 was a day which saw a significant number of mechanical incidents and crashes. Oss is one of three riders unable to take to the start line in Binche, Belgium for stage 6, with Michael Gogl (Alpecin-Deceuninck) also leaving the race after crashing with Oss. The Austrian has suffered a fractured collarbone and pelvis.
Jack Haig, one of Bahrain Victorious' leaders, also abandoned. Haig also crashed out of the 2021 Tour.
There is limited information so far regarding Oss' injury, however it is clear that Oss will be forced to spend a significant period away from the sport as he recovers. The loss will be felt by Peter Sagan, for whom the Italian rider is a key lieutenant.
The two made the move from Bora-Hansgrohe to TotalEnergies together at the end of the 2021 season.
There have been a number of notable accidents involving roadside spectators in France in the past couple of seasons. In April, Yves Lampaert was brought down by a fan leaning into the road in the closing stages of Paris-Roubaix. At last year's Tour de France, a fan holding a sign caused a crash involving the entire Jumbo Visma team. They were fined as a result of their actions.
