There is no such thing as a simple stage of the Tour de France, as second-placed overall Geraint Thomas found out on Tuesday. The Team Ineos leader crashed at nearly 50km/h, falling hard on his left side after his front wheel went away from him.
The incident came with 130km to go in the 177km stage around Nîmes as the peloton rounded a corner. Thomas was quick to get up but found his Pinarello inoperable and had to wait for a replacement from a team mechanic. He scuffed the left shoulder of his jersey sand also banged his left knee.
Thomas had no trouble getting back into the peloton but later dropped back to his Team Ineos team car for treatment from the team doctor Richard Usher, who sprayed water on Thomas' knee.
The bumps and bruises of the crash could hamper the Welshman in the difficult stages in the Alps ahead and no doubt reminded him of his crash at the Tour de Suisse.
Thomas is 1:35 behind race leader Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep) and has four riders within 30 seconds behind him: Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), his teammate Egan Bernal and Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe).
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