French cyclist Emilien Jeanniere of Team TotalEnergies was forced to abandon the Tour de France after cycling 174km with a fractured left shoulder blade, his team announced on Wednesday ahead of the fifth stage time trial in Caen.
The 26-year-old, riding in his first Tour, crashed at the end of Monday’s third stage in Dunkirk.
His team said he sustained facial injuries, multiple bruises and had stitches in a number of cuts. He even had to get a dentist to open up to fix a broken tooth.
Photo: AFP
Remarkably, Jeanniere went on to complete the gut-busting 174km fourth stage from Amiens to Rouen, struggling home in 147th place, more than 15 minutes behind stage winner Tadej Pogacar.
His team said further medical examinations on Wednesday morning had “revealed a fracture of the left shoulder blade” and he had withdrawn from the race.
“I ended up with minor injuries in the end considering the seriousness of the incident,” Jeanniere told France TV. “Yesterday, I did the stage in that state, it held up. I had some pain. I asked to have a scan, which happened this morning.”
“It’s my first Tour de France. I’m very emotional because I’ll miss something that is very important for me, for the team,” he said. “It’s unfortunate, it’s sad, but that’s cycling. I’ll be back.”
Meanwhile, three-time Tour winner Pogacar took over the yellow jersey after Belgian rider Remco Evenepoel stormed his way to victory in the fifth-stage time trial.
Pogacar, who started the day in second place on the same time as leader Mathieu van der Poel, produced one of his best time trials on the 33km route around Caen to finish just 16 seconds behind the world and Olympic champion to leave Van der Poel and fellow challenger Jonas Vingegaard struggling in his wake.
The Slovenian, who now holds a 42 second lead over Evenepoel with Vingegaard over a minute behind, is the first rider since Eddie Merckx in the 1970s to hold all three of the main jerseys — the general classification, points and king of the mountains.
Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday fought through a second-set slump to post a roller-coaster 6-1, 2-6, 6-3 victory over Damir Dzumhur in his opening match at the Cincinnati Open. The Spaniard, playing his first tournament since losing to Jannik Sinner in the Wimbledon final, raced through the first set, but completely lost his way in the second, dropping his serve twice against the 33-year-old Bosnian. Alcaraz regained his intensity and cut down his errors in the third set as a seventh ace took him to a match point that was converted when Dzumhur fired wide. “It was just a roller coaster,” said the second
NEXT ROUND: World No. 1s Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka opened their title defenses with straight-sets wins, while Iga Swiatek and Taylor Fritz also advanced Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka got their title defenses off to smooth starts as they powered into the third round of the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Open on Saturday. The men’s and women’s top seeds, each ranked No. 1 in the world, were both competing for the first time since Wimbledon, where Sinner lifted the title and Sabalenka bowed out in the women’s semi-finals. Sinner crushed Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan 6-1, 6-1 in steamy afternoon weather, while Sabalenka beat 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova 7-5, 6-1 under the lights of the night session. Sabalenka needed 54 minutes and a service break in the final game
Taiwan’s men’s basketball team on Monday clinched a spot in the FIBA Asia Cup quarter-finals with a 78-64 win over Jordan in Saudi Arabia, securing their best finish in the tournament since placing fourth in 2013. The win was sweet revenge for Taiwan, who were denied a quarter-final spot by Jordan at the same stage of the previous Asia Cup in 2022 after blowing a nine-point lead in the final minute and losing 97-96 on a half-court buzzer-beater. “History is part of the journey,” Taiwan head coach Gianluca Tucci said when asked about the 2022 collapse of the team, who he did
TECH ISSUES: Before Sinner’s match against Diallo the lights went out at the courts, and during it the electronic line-calling system partly failed and an alarm sounded Jannik Sinner on Monday ignored technical issues interruptions and a blaring alarm to defeat Gabriel Diallo 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) on a day of distractions at the Cincinnati Open. The top-seeded defending champion got down to business against the 35th-ranked Canadian, who was plagued by eight first-set double faults and 49 unforced errors in the match as he faced the best in the world. Sinner recovered smoothly from an early break down and had his hands full on his way into the fourth round, sending over an ace on match point after saving a set point in the tiebreaker. Play was stopped briefly with
RSS