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.
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.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
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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