Tour de France: Australians Caleb Ewan and Jack Haig crash out of the Tour

Brendan Bradford

Tour de France: Australians Caleb Ewan and Jack Haig crash out of the Tour image

Australians Caleb Ewan and Jack Haig are out of the Tour de France, while a number of big-name general classification riders are nursing injuries after a crash-filled finish to the third stage into Pontivy. 

Ewan clipped wheels with stage winner Tim Merlier in the closing 200m of the day and hit the pavement hard. 

The 26-year-old broke his collarbone in four places in the crash, which also took down Peter Sagan. The pair were the only two riders in the bunch to crash. 

A crash on a tight left hand bend with four kilometers to race saw Haig fall heavily. He was later forced to abandon the Tour. 

The same crash bought down defending champion Tadej Pogacar, who lost 26 seconds to Julian Alaphilippe, Richard Carapaz and Enric Mas, but finished alongside many other GC hopefuls. 

Earlier in the stage, Geraint Thomas' hopes of a good finish appeared to be in tatters when he fell and broke his collarbone. The 2018 Tour winner had his shoulder popped back in and he finished alongside defending champion Tadej Pogacar.

Scans later revealed no broken bones for Thomas, but his INEOS team will make a decision on his fitness to continue the race ahead of stage four.  

Last year's runner-up, Primoz Roglic, didn't fare so well, crashing badly with 10km to go and finishing bloodied and bruised, losing 1:21 on the day.  

Caleb Ewan's crash


A heart-broken Ewan, who was aiming to win his first green jersey, explained his crash in a video posted to social media by his Lotto-Soudal team. 

“It all happened quite quickly, but I just remember that I wanted to go quite early in the chicane," he said. 

"I started riding, sprinting on the left, and then saw that the the guys on the front were closing to the right. I had to stop sprinting and open up again.

“I became next to Peter (Sagan) and we were quite close together on the wheel. Then when Merlier went against the right, I just touched the wheel and went down.

"It all happened quite quickly. Usually when you crash, you don’t feel so much - the adrenaline is there - but straight away I felt a lot of pain. They (doctors) were pressing on my collarbone and I could feel it like clicking.

“It’s the first bone I’ve ever broken, but they told me it’s broken in four spots. They said it’s broken in four spots.

"It’s enough to get some surgery on it to to put it back into place. But I think out of any bone to be broken, I think it’s one of the good ones, or one of the ones where it’s easiest to come back.”

The chaotic finale to the third stage of the race has been met with anger from riders and their teams.

Groupama-FDJ team manager Marc Madiot was one of the most outspoken, saying the course design was too dangerous. 

“I am a father. There are many families who watch the Tour de France on television, there are many children who watch the Tour de France," he said. 

"There are many mothers who watch the Tour de France on television.

“Well, tonight, I don’t want my kid to be a professional cyclist. My wife doesn’t want my kid to ride a bike, and many families don’t want their kids to ride a bike after what we have seen today.

“We’ve been talking about this for years, but now we have to find solutions. We can’t go on like this, it’s not cycling anymore.

"The bend with 150 metres to go... What state is Caleb Ewan in? And the others? So we have to change, we have to be able to say that it’s not working anymore.”

Veteran sprinter Andrei Greipel took to Twitter to vent his anger. 

Cofidis rider Simon Geschke hit out at the fact that the UCI has banned use of the "super-tuck" on descents, but allowed a dangerous finish like today's. 

The crash-filled stage comes just two days after a spectator caused a massive pile-up on stage one, bringing down Germany's Tony Martin with a homemade cardboard sign. 

In the wash-up, Merlier took the stage win ahead of teammate Jasper Philipsen, with Nacer Bouhanni in third. 

Stage two winner Mathieu van der Poel retains the yellow jersey with an eight second lead over Julian Alaphilppe and a 31 second advantage over Richie Carapaz. Pogacar is in sixth 39 seconds behind, while Roglic is 20th, 1:35 behind van der Poel. 

Alaphilippe is still in the green jersey, with Ida Schelling holding on to the polka dot jersey for another day. 

 

 

Brendan Bradford