The crashes of this year's Tour de France finally took their toll on Anthon Charmig on Saturday, with the writing on the wall early in stage 14 when the Uno-X Mobility was dropped as soon as the climbing dug in .
It was a day where the ascents came quickly and regularly, with the opening first category 1 climb of Grand Ballon topping out at just 37km from the start, and then there were the category 2 and two category 1 climbs to follow. Even then, it wasn't a profile that would usually be expected to trip Charmig up, with the Danish rider capable in the hills and certainly not among the likely suspects to fall away from the bunch early, but these were no ordinary circumstances. The rider had first hit the deck in stage 2 and then on stage 12 got caught up in a horrible high speed crash within the final kilometre that also brought many other riders unstuck, including two of his teammates Søren Wærenskjold and Jonas Abrahamsen.
"The body was hurting a bit after my crash from two days ago, so I didn't really feel that good on the bike, and unfortunately I got dropped alone on the first climb and then it is impossible to do anything," said Charmig.
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Even in less difficult circumstances, it was a brutal day of racing at the Tour de France that left the majority of the field crossing the line more than 30 minutes behind the yellow-clad Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) as he claimed his fourth victory of this year's race.
Abrahamsen and Wærenskjold, who came through in the last big group at 37:51 back, managed to make it inside the time limit but Charmig – who just days ago had been fighting out the front in the break and secured the stage 11 most combative rider award as a result – was still out on the road long after much of the crowd had cleared.
Regardless, there was no stepping off the bike with the Danish rider pushing right through to the line. The effort to make it to the finish at Le Markstein, nearly an hour after Pogačar had claimed victory, was not enough to keep him in the race and OTL (outside time limit) was the entry next to his name at the end of stage 14 . It did, however, earn him an appreciative welcome as the onlookers remaining attempted to make up for the low numbers by delivering at high volume, banging loudly on the barriers as Charmig delivered the last painful pedal strokes of his Tour de France, delivering a result that wouldn't count on paper but would count in the memory.
"It was quite disappointing. I have to admit I was quite sad when I crossed the finish line," said Charmig, though he also recalled a number of other high points from his second participation in the French Grand Tour.
On top of the combativity prize for Charmig, who demonstrated his strong form coming into the Tour de France by claiming a stage victory at the Tour Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes, the rider played a strong team role in what has so far been an eventful run for the Uno-X Mobility squad. Teammate Torstein Træen wore the yellow jersey for two days in the first week while Wærenskjold finished second on stage 7 and then went on to win stage 11 after the break, which included Charmig, was caught.
"I spent a lot of the Tour trying to come back from crashes but also it has been special for the team … I have a lot of great memories," said Charmig.
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