Torstein Træen's second day in the Tour de France yellow jersey proved to be his last, with the Norwegian dropped on the ascent of the Col du Tourmalet and crashing on the descent.
The Uno-X Mobility rider, who took the overall lead with a huge margin over the main general classification contenders after infiltrating the stage 4 breakaway, hit the deck halfway down the long descent of the Tourmalet towards the end of Thursday's stage 5.
He was being piloted by a teammate, who slowed down as they approached a left-hand bend. Træen kept going up the inside of his teammate, who then began to turn into the corner and into Træen. The race leader braked but could not avoid a touch of wheels, and he landed heavily on his shoulder, neck, and possibly even his head.
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Træen's yellow jersey was dusted up, and as he sat in the middle of the road receiving a medical check, it was clear he'd be handing it over by the end of the day.
But that much was already, in fact, clear, with Træen shipping time from the lower slopes of the Tourmalet, when he was dropped by UAE Team Emirates' pace-making.
Though not considered a legitimate GC rider, he had been expected to survive this stage given his near-eight-minute gap over Tadej Pogačar, and take the jersey well into the second week.
However, Træen had nearly conceded all of that advantage by the time he'd even started the ill-fated descent. Whether or not he can continue remains to be seen.
"We have to see what X-ray shows," the Norwegian said in the post-race interview. "For now, my head is hurting a bit, and then obviously my ribs are not super fine. So yeah, we just have to see."
Træen was eventually able to remount and continue the stage, light-heartedly discussing the incident with his teammate in the valley, but his stint in yellow is now over.
"I was joking with Anders that we would sprint for it, so I don't know if he would let me win or not," he said [Johannessen beat him for 50th place on the stage]. "But at least we can still enjoy, even though it was not the best day."
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