Watch: Geraint Thomas caught in crash that snapped Moscon bike on stage eight of the Tour de France 2019

The defending champion was forced to chase back up to the peloton in the closing kilometres of stage eight

An Ineos rider standing beside a snapped bike after the crash
By Jonny Long
published

Geraint Thomas was caught up in a crash with his Ineos team-mates in the closing kilometres of stage eight of the Tour de France 2019.

Television pictures showed a number of Ineos riders coming round a corner when an EF Education First rider lost their wheel and sent the group crashing to the floor. Michał Kwiatkowski was able to put Thomas' chain back on his undamaged bike and send him off.

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He then immediately began chasing down the peloton, with Gianni Moscon left standing by the side of the road alongside his bike which was snapped in two.

An Ineos rider standing beside a snapped bike after the crash

Wout Poels dug deep to bring Thomas as close as he could to the back of the peloton, with the Welshman having to do his own work as he took a few minutes to get back onto the bunch.

Geraint Thomas and his Ineos team-mates chasing back up to the peloton after crashing

Egan Bernal was not caught up in the crash, and stayed in the front group to protect Ineos' overall classification ambitions. Thomas later said he was "fine" after the crash but frustrated with the time he lost to Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), who escaped with Julian Alaphilippe to gain 20 seconds over the main bunch.

Both Thomas and Bernal safely finished in the main bunch to stay within the top-10 overall at 1-12 and 1-16 respectively.

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Jonny Long

Hi. I'm Cycling Weekly's Weekend Editor. I like writing offbeat features and eating too much bread when working out on the road at bike races.


Before joining Cycling Weekly I worked at The Tab and I've also written for Vice, Time Out, and worked freelance for The Telegraph (I know, but I needed the money at the time so let me live).


I also worked for ITV Cycling between 2011-2018 on their Tour de France and Vuelta a España coverage. Sometimes I'd be helping the producers make the programme and other times I'd be getting the lunches. Just in case you were wondering - Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen had the same ham sandwich every day, it was great.

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