Tour de France: Geraint Thomas and Primož Roglič dropped early on stage eight
The two riders who were pre-race favourites alongside Tadej Pogačar finished in the grupetto over half an hour after the stage winner
The non-stop racing at the Tour de France 2021 has taken its toll on the likes of Geraint Thomas and Primož Roglič as they continue to suffer from their crashes as they lost touch early on with the other contenders during the eighth stage.
Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) was the first to be dropped alongside the likes of green jersey wearer, Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) as well as Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) and some other sprinters.
Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) lost over three minutes to the other pre-race favourites on stage seven and was dropped on the second rise of the day by the peloton on stage eight.
They eventually came in with the grupetto finishing 35-01 behind the stage winner of Dylan Teuns (Bahrain Victorious) with the new yellow jersey, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) now having 36-03 on Thomas in GC and 39-45 on Roglič.
Both Thomas and Roglič finished fourth and third last on the day and were apparently chatting as they crossed the line.
>>> Tour de France stage eight LIVE: Oyonnax to Le Grand-Bornand
Both riders crashed on stage three with Thomas dislocating his shoulder in the first crash of the day where he came down with Robert Gesink (Jumbo-Visma), who abandoned.
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Roglič's crash had a far heavier impact on the road as he clipped the wheel of Italian champion Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Victorious) and slammed onto the road.
Not only did Roglič get dropped on stage eight he then got dropped by the group he was originally with, which included Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies) and he headed back to the groupetto that had Thomas in the group.
It means that both these riders will likely have to reassess what they want to do with the Olympics coming up as well as the Vuelta a España. Both Roglič and Thomas are riding the Olympics road race and time trial so they may decide to abandon the race to rest up before the trip to Tokyo.
This now leaves Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) as the main favourite as he looks to defend his Tour title after winning in 2020.
Ineos Grenadiers and Team Jumbo-Visma aren't out of things with the general classification yet though as Ineos have 2019 Giro d'Italia winner Richard Carapaz still involved in the fight for yellow and Jumbo-Visma have Jonas Vingegaard and potentially Wout van Aert to maybe have a crack at the overall.
The opening week of the Tour was filled with crashes that saw multiple riders lose their chances in the overall standings with the likes of Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Miguel Ángel López (Movistar) losing sacks of time.
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Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!
I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.
After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.
When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.
My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.
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