The Tour de France started with 176 riders but after 16 stages, the peloton is down to 146 with the latest victim being Marc Soler – a teammate of second-placed Tadej Pogačar.
The Spaniard, seen vomiting during the stage, dropped back to the medical car mid-stage on Tuesday and then spent the rest of the Pyrenean stage riding in front of the broom wagon. He missed the time cut by 15 minutes, finishing 57 minutes behind stage winner Hugo Houle (Isreal-Premier Tech).
That leaves Pogačar down to four UAE Team Emirates teammates after losing George Bennett and Vegard Stake Laengen to COVID-19 positives in the second week. That’s one fewer than Jonas Vingegaard‘s Jumbo-Visma squad, who lost Primož Roglič and Steven Kruijswijk to crash injuries on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Ineos Grenadiers still have a full team around Geraint Thomas – one of just six squads still at full strength in the final week of the Tour de France.
COVID-19 is the biggest culprit knocking riders out of the race. There have been 12 riders to test positive in the third Tour de France since the pandemic started.
In the past two Tours, strict sanitary measures prevented coronavirus cases at the Tour, but the return of spectators and loosening of the race bubble let the latest highly infectious variant ricochet through the peloton.
Stage-by-Stage
Stage 5:
The first rider to abandon was Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious). He crashed out on the cobbled stage, coming down when riders hit a hay bale that had been knocked into the exit of a roundabout. Michael Gogl (Alpecin-Deceuninck) also abandoned on the stage due to a crash.
Gogl fell along with Daniel Oss (TotalEnergies) after running into a spectator who had stepped into the road to take pictures. The Austrian suffered a broken collarbone and broken pelvis/iliac bone.
- DNF Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) – Crash
- DNF Michael Gogl (Alpecin-Deceuninck) – Crash
Stage 6:
Alex Kirsch (Trek-Segafredo) struggled and fell behind the race, eventually pulling out. Oss finished stage 5 but did not start after X-rays showed his fractured vertebra.
- DNS Daniel Oss (TotalEnergies) – Crash
- DNF Alex Kirsch (Trek-Segafredo) – Fatigue
Stage 8:
The first COVID-19 cases since the start of the Tour came on stage 8, when Laengen and Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R Citroën) tested positive and left the race. Astana’s Gianni Moscon also pulled out, suffering from lingering effects of a previous COVID-19 infection.
- DNS Vegard Stake Laengen (UAE Team Emirates) – COVID-19
- DNS Geoffrey Bouchard…
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