Haig loses time behind late Tour de France crash

A nervy day ended with bad news for Australian yellow jersey hopeful Jack Haig, with the Vuelta a Espana podium finisher losing time after getting caught behind a crash late on Stage 3 of the Tour de France.

Australian Jack Haig (Bahrain-Victorious) during the 2022 Criterium du Dauphine. Source: Getty / Dario Belingheri/Getty Images

A crash in the middle of the peloton as the road narrowed just over 10 kilometres from the sprint finish in Sønderborg saw a number of riders hit the deck, with a large portion of the peloton stuck behind with the road blocked briefly by fallen riders. Several contenders for the general classification (GC) were involved, having to chase back frantically with the riders contesting the stage win waiting for no one.

Bahrain Victorious leaders Jack Haig and Damiano Caruso were the highest profile riders in the group, also Rigoberto Uran (EF Education-EasyPost) along with Israel-Premier Tech co-leader Michael Woods and Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert GC hope Louis Meintjes.

Stage 3 winner Dylan Groenewegen (BikeExchange-Jayco) said in his race winner’s interview that he was held up in the crash but praised his team in getting back to the front of the race during the frantic run into the finish.

That wasn’t to be the case for Haig and co, with the Australian ceding 39 seconds to his general classification rivals as he slipped from 52^nd overall to 83^rd, a minute and 37 seconds behind overall leader Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma).

“There was a big crash at the end, we were caught behind and the road was blocked,” said Bahrain Victorious’ Matej Mohoric. “We tried to work to limit the losses for GC, but it was not the best day for us because we lost time and car position for the next stages. It’s not ideal but we’ll try to bounce back and we’ll see at the end if this will affect us or not.”