It was another spectacle of carnage among the peloton on the roads of France as riders hit some loose gravel on the road with 62 kilometres to go, many hitting the ground and others careering off the edge of the road and down a steep slope into the treeline.
Riders struggled to remount and continue the race, Tim Declercq (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Soren Kragh Andersen (Team DSM), Roger Kluge (Lotto Soudal) Simon Yates, Chris Juul-Jensen (both Team BikeExchange) appeared the worst off, Kluge abandoned the race immediately but the others remounted and continued with the race.
Yates abandoned the race after trying to continue, with Australian Lucas Hamilton (Team BikeExchange) also ruled out due to the fall.
Australian Simon Clarke (Qhubeka-NextHash) described the crash that he found himself in the midst of after the stage finish.
“We got a message over the radio about 10 seconds before that there was gravel on the road, I came round the corner and the bunch was exploded yet again," said Clarke. "Unfortunately, I’ve got a magnet for these things this year, they all crashed in front of me. I managed to stop in time and then they all hit me from behind.
"I was involved but I didn’t really crash, it’s hard to get away from these things. I didn’t hurt myself at all, I’m fine, but it’s more stress than we really need."
The presence of gravel was reportedly communicated over Radio Tour, which keeps teams aware of the race situation and distributes safety announcements, which are then distributed to the riders by the teams.
A tweet from Lotto Soudal confirmed the presence of gravel on the road surface, with a subsequent tweet also updating the German's confirmed as the leadout rider for Caleb Ewan was taken to hospital.
Matthew White, sports director for Team BikeExchange couldn't provide any details on Hamilton or Yates ahead of the medical assessment but made a point about the potential for the falls to interrupt their Olympics preparation, with the men's road race on the 24th of July.
“The two riders there are preparing for the Olympic Games and for them to crash two weeks before is pretty devastating for those guys," said White. "Fingers crossed they’re okay and it doesn’t affect their Olympic campaign.”
There's been an update on Hamilton's condition with the Australian rider saying in the team's Backstage pass that he separated his AC joint in the fall.
