When the Tour de France hits the cobblestones of Paris-Roubaix it is always going to deal major blows to the hopes of several GC contenders and that predictably proved to be the case on Wednesday’s fifth stage to Wallers.
Primož Roglič‘s two-minute tumble down the standings after dislocating his shoulder mid-stage grabbed the headlines during what was a dismal day out for Jumbo-Visma. However, there were plenty of other hard-luck stories to tell as the riders battled over 11 punishing sectors of cobblestones en route to the finish just short of the most famous sector of all.
For Bahrain Victorious hopeful Jack Haig, this year’s Tour de France will once again be a case of what might have been. After crashing out on stage 3 last summer, he made it two days further this time around before becoming the first rider to abandon the race.
The 28-year-old was caught in a crash with a hay bale at 30km to go that also saw Roglič and Caleb Ewan fall and could be seen walking to the side of the road afterwards. He suffered a left elbow wound and abrasions on his back but avoided any fractures.
30km remain in Stage 5 and a stray hay bale causes chaos for the Peloton, taking out Caleb Ewan and Jack Haig in the process! 😭Watch Stage 5 of the Tour de France EXCLUSIVELY LIVE and FREE here ▶️: https://t.co/Ic5j15vd4x #couchpeloton #TDF2022 #sbstdf pic.twitter.com/I8m9JcmGFNJuly 6, 2022
Ewan, meanwhile, suffered a “slight concussion” according to the post-stage medical report, and that wasn’t the end of the pain for the Australian riders – despite Simon Clarke’s stage victory from the breakaway.
AG2R Citroën leader Ben O’Connor finished his day 4:12 down on Clarke and drops to 61st overall, 4:34 down on race leader Wout van Aert. Speaking afterwards, he told the story of his day, saying that he punctured on the second cobbled sector of the day and never got back to the front of the race.
“When I was on the second sector I punctured,” he said. “And yeah, the race started to split a lot. It was really, really hard to chase back. There were a million cars in between, too many motorbikes, TV cameras everywhere. A TV camera will come in front of you and then all of a sudden there’s a big traffic jam so it was a bit rough for us to chase and we never could get close.
“Maybe we could’ve all stopped straight away, maybe,” he added when asked about how his team responded to the puncture. “But I still had Geoffrey [Bouchard], Mikaël [Cherel] and Benoît [Cosnefroy]…
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