Groupama-FDJ United may have delivered a solid start on the results sheet on stage 1 of the Tour de France, with eighth on the stage and Romain Grégoire sitting 12th overall, but they also suffered a loss as the impact of a crash in the team time trial will leave them one rider down from Sunday.
All was well through the first intermediate check, with the team clocking fifth position, but around halfway through the 19.6km time trial, Clément Berthet and Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet crashed.
"Clément lost his balance, Guillaume couldn't avoid him, and Quentin's [Pacher] chain came off, and he was split," said coach Anthony Bouillod in a team statement. "We quickly found ourselves down to five riders."
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Despite that, the squad continued, not wanting to lose time for Romain Grégoire. The 23-year-old puncheur is, after all, well suited to trying his hand on the hilly stage 2, which, if the gaps are pulled out, could place him in a position to chase a chance to wear the yellow jersey.
"It was a real blow," said the 23-year-old Grégoire. "In the heat of the moment, I didn't even see that they had crashed. Since we had decided to save me for the finale, there were only four of them left to work."
While the rest of the team continued to charge to the finish and Grégoire finished it off with a strong final dash, both Martin-Guyonnet and Berthet limped over the line around three minutes back.
"We showed the commitment we wanted, and the result is pretty good considering the context," said Bouillod. "On the other hand, Clément and Guillaume's crash is obviously a huge disappointment. We could have hoped for sixth place if we'd had them with us, but above all, there are the after-effects of that crash."
The team confirmed that Berthet would not be able to start on Sunday's stage, an early addition to the abandons list, but did not give further detail on his injuries. Stage 2 will take riders 182km from Tarragona to Barcelona, finishing with three ascents of the Montjuïc Castle in the final 30km.
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