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said further medical examinations on Wednesday morning had “revealed a fracture of the left shoulder blade” and he had withdrawn from the race.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.
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