Following brutal days on the bike such as the Tour de France's visit to the Roubaix cobbles on stage 5, the stage 7 transitional stage through the Jura Mountains to Lausanne in Switzerland hardly looked like a candidate for the most attritional day of the race so far.
But that's what it became as four further riders left the race on Saturday, bringing the total number of riders left in the race down to 168. In the morning, both UAE Team Emirates and AG2R Citroën announced that their riders Vegard Stake Laengen and Geoffrey Bouchard were out due to positive COVID-19 tests.
They were joined on the Tour's DNF list later on by debutant Kevin Vermaerke (Team DSM) and Gianni Moscon (Astana Qazaqstan).
The American climber was involved in a mass pile-up inside the opening 10km of the 186km stage, a crash that split the peloton and saw yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar also hit the deck, albeit lightly.
Vermaerke's team announced his withdrawal on social media, stating that they "will provide an update later. When that update came through it turned out that the crash that ended Vermaerke's Tour debut had left him with a broken left collarbone. Team DSM physician Anko Boelens said it was likely that the rider would need surgery on the break, but that his other injuries were "thankfully only superficial".
“I’m gutted to end the Tour de France like this," said Vermaerke. "I have no words. I really wanted to continue on but unfortunately it was just not possible. I was really enjoying the opening week with the guys. The legs felt good and the atmosphere at the race was incredible, so I’ll take some nice memories with me but this motivates me even more to come back stronger."
As the remainder of the peloton raced into the final 70km of the stage, Astana Qazaqstan announced that Gianni Moscon had also dropped out of the race, citing 'Long COVID-19' as the reason for his abandon.
The Italian had struggled in recent days, losing minutes even on his favoured terrain over the cobbles of stage. He lay in 170th overall, just two spots above last place, before climbing off.
"Unfortunately, Gianni Moscon had to quit the race today," Astana announced on social media. "He is still feeling the consequences of so-called 'long-COVID-19' (post-COVID fatigue)."
Moscon, who joined Astana this year from Ineos Grenadiers, caught COVID-19 at the start of the season, missing three weeks of training as a consequence. He raced several spring Classics but ended his campaign early, calling his condition "sub-zero".
Stake Laengen, Bouchard, Vermaerke and Moscon join Alex Kirsch (Trek-Segafredo), Daniel Oss (TotalEnergies), Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious), and Michael Gogl (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in leaving the race so far.
