Sprint stage won by Girmay in the Tour de France, overshadowed by Roglic's harsh crash

After the hard-fought ride on Wednesday towards Le Lioran, there was obviously a lot to talk about. Because of the leaders, Jonas Vingegaard and Pogacar, but certainly also the stragglers. While the big two and their teams continued a minor verbal war, the Covid virus suddenly became a topic of discussion in the Tour peloton again.

Michael Morkov (Astana Qazaqstan Team) was the first rider to exit the race due to the virus, but in the background, there were still some rumors. In particular, the name of the Bahrain Victorious team was mentioned, which saw Matej Mohoric, Pello Bilbao, and Fred Wright, who finished outside the time limit on Wednesday, in trouble. Mohoric confirmed on behalf of the team that there were no cases of Covid.

Anyway, around 12:30 PM, the riders simply got on their bikes for another tricky ride. From the start, some elevation had to be overcome, where strong time trialists and climbers stirred to get into the breakaway of the day. Teams particularly active included Groupama-FDJ, Lidl-Trek, Lotto-Dstny, and EF Education-EasyPost.

This riffraff cost one man his chance: Fabio Jakobsen, representing dsm-firmenich PostNL, had to drop out very early. On the advice of his team director, he decided to push on, but after just twenty kilometers, the Dutchman was already facing a five-minute deficit. The logical consequence of this was a withdrawal, and with a wave to his family, he disappeared into the team car.

Up front, the attacks kept coming, but a crash abruptly ended them. Yellow jersey Tadej Pogacar had to put his foot on the ground, while Nils Eekhoff (dsm-firmenich PostNL), Jonas Rickaert (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Sean Quinn, and Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) saw the asphalt up close. Rickaert and Powless seemed to suffer the most from it.

Just at that moment, four riders had broken away, who were given freedom by the peloton as it waited for the yellow jersey. This was a strong breakaway group, with Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X), Valentin Madouas, Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), and Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) as the hard riders. The peloton was aware of this, and Alpecin-Deceuninck quickly decided to put Silvan Dillier at the front.

With Rickaert's fall, they had one less worker, who, like Yevgeniy Fedorov (Astana) and Bilbao, ran into early trouble. The Spaniard, who was still ranked fifteenth until yesterday, later decided to call it quits: due to illness, he simply could no longer perform, and getting into the team car was the only remaining option.

Meanwhile, Alpecin-Deceuninck received support from Movistar in the peloton, which clearly believed in sprinter Fernando Gaviria. Together, they vigorously chased the lead group, with the Belgian team quickly burning out the not fully fit Soren Kragh Andersen. Up front, Turgis was a victim of the high pace, as they had only a forty-second lead with fifty kilometers to go. Just ten kilometers later, their story was over.

Thus, the peloton was able to start getting ready for the final sprint, but just over ten kilometers from the finish, the peloton was suddenly shaken by a big crash. Alexey Lutsenko fell in the middle of the peloton, taking about twenty riders with him, including Primoz Roglic of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. The Slovenian was able to continue, but riders from Lotto-Dstny, Arkéa - B&B Hotels, and Astana were left behind in pain.

Roglic continued without much motivation, appeared battered, and lost a considerable amount of time in the GC at the finish. The peloton briefly tried to wait, but then had to continue racing towards the final kilometers. Philipsen had to do without his usual lead-out, Mathieu van der Poel, who was also caught behind in the crash.

Abrahamsen, after a day in the breakaway, still had enough energy to stretch the peloton out for the last two kilometers, but no team could really take control. Arkéa - B&B Hotels managed fairly well, while Philipsen had to come from far back. This meant he couldn't really compete for the victory, after which it was Girmay who was able to clinch the win ahead of the also strongly sprinting Van Aert, Démare, and Philipsen.