Primož Roglič lost more time on stage seven of the 2021 Tour de France, making his continued GC challenge an evermore unlikely prospect.
Last year's runner-up has been suffering since his stage three crash, saying before the start of stage seven that he was still in a lot of back pain, with his tailbone also still causing him discomfort after he landed hard on the tarmac earlier this week.
Roglič was distanced towards the end of the 249km-long stage, losing nearly four minutes to the peloton containing most of his GC rivals.
He is now more than five minutes in arrears to defending champion Tadej Pogačar.
The Jumbo-Visma leader was distanced on the steep section of the final category two climb of the day, the Signal d'Uchon. No team-mates waited for him as he eventually crossed the line with only Simon Geschke (Cofidis) and Warren Barguil (Arkéa-Samsic) for company.
That could signal a change of plan for Jumbo-Visma, who have the young Danish revelation Jonas Vingegaard waiting in the wings and in 11th place overall currently, less than two minutes behind Pogačar.
It was a day of highs, lows and stress for Slovenia, as Bahrain-Victorious' Matej Mohorič won the stage and Tadej Pogačar's UAE Team Emirates were forced to chase a large chase group peeling away up the road, throwing down an early gauntlet after last year's winner showed imperious form in the stage five time trial.
This weekend, before Monday's first rest day, two Alpine challenges present themselves, and will be doubly hard after today's challenge.
More to follow...
