A protester, a crash and a near-miss for Jayco at Tour
Pogacar took a heavy tumble with four kilometres left of the dramatic 11th stage on Wednesday, and was grateful that Tour honour was upheld when, up ahead, the peloton eased up, allowing the under-pressure champion, who'd already lost about 20 seconds, to rejoin.
Meanwhile, a thrilling duel between Norway's Jonas Abrahamsen and Jayco's Swiss champion Mauro Schmid was nearly compromised by the protester, in a T-shirt reading "Israel out of the Tour" and waving a Palestinian scarf, who burst on the course 50m from the line.
Eventually, as a security officer did a nifty job in tackling the invader, Schmid, who'd been on course to win the Australian team's first stage of the 2025 Tour, got pipped by half a wheel by Uno-X Mobility's Abrahamsen, who completed a fabulous comeback after a recent accident.
In the day's central drama, Irishman Ben Healy, while retaining the leader's yellow jersey, agreed with two-time Tour champion Jonas Vingegaard, Pogacar's main rival for the title, that the peloton should all knock off the pace after his crash.
Pogacar had gone down heavily into a kerb when Tobias Johannessen cut across him at speed, clipping wheels. The Norwegian rider later apologised, revealing that he had later received hate messages on social media.
Pogacar quickly remounted, after some help at roadside, and was left hugely thankful for the gesture.
"I'm quite okay, a bit beaten up, but we've been through worse days," the UAE Team Emirates-XRG leader said.
"Thanks to the peloton in front, they actually waited. They could have taken time. Really big respect to everybody in front. Thanks for your support, guys."
In the GC, Healy remains 29 seconds clear of Pogacar, with Olympic champ Remco Evenepoel third 1:29 down on the Irishman and Vingegaard fourth at 1:46.
All, though, is expected to change on Thursday's stage 12 with the race's first Pyrenean high-mountain showdown with a summit finish on the famed Hautacam. Only then will it be seen if Pogacar, who's so far looked untouchable, has endured any lasting effects from his spill.
Abrahamsen's victory was his reward for attacking from the very start of the stage, a 156.8km loop around Toulouse. It ended with him and Schmid, who'd surged from the breakaway, nearly getting caught by a charging Mathieu van der Poel, who fell just short in third place.
"I broke my collarbone four weeks ago. I cried at the hospital because I thought I wouldn't make it to the Tour de France," the emotional Abrahamsen explained after his maiden Grand Tour win.
"I hoped, and every day I did everything I could to come back. To stand here in the Tour de France and to have won a stage is amazing."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
7 minutes ago
- ABC News
Sarah Gigante set to star as Tour de France Femmes heads to the mountains
The Tour de France Femmes is well and truly underway, with four of the race's nine stages already done and dusted. Those flat stages were the preserve of the fast women: Marianne Vos. Lorena Wiebes. Kim Le Court Pienaar — sprinters and rouleurs having their fun before the real work begins in the mountains and hills of the east. Now, as the race continues its migration across France, the roads begin to climb. The Massif Central looms and then, the Alps. It is time for the mountain goats to flex their climbing muscles. Australian Sarah Gigante has rightly been looking forward to the mountains. The 24-year-old Victorian is fresh off finishing third overall and winning the mountains jersey at the Giro d'Italia Donne — only the second Aussie after Amanda Spratt in 2018 to win the maglia azzurra. She won two stages in that race — the two most mountainous ones, at that. In fact, had Gigante not been caught out on a crosswind-affected sixth stage and lost almost 2 minutes overall, she may well have been hailed as Australia's first women's grand tour champion. What was all the more incredible was it came after Gigante spent six months out following major surgery. "Last December, I had a major surgery, basically to unkink and remove some scar tissue from my iliac artery, which was really a big surgery," Gigante told ABC Sport. The Victorian rider required the operation due to a thinning of the artery that transports blood down to her right leg, resulting in numbness and pain. It is increasingly common in endurance athletes, particularly cyclists, due to the constant flexing of the hip. "I've had quite a lot of operations in the past for broken bones but that's quite standard for cyclists, whereas this was more risky coming back from and took a long time," Gigante said. "It was a super cool feeling just to be on the start line again [at the Giro] and racing against the world's best. "To have a breakout week was just beyond all my dreams." Gigante is not wrong about requiring a frequent flyer card for her local operating theatre. As well as multiple broken bones, she had previously required treatment for myopericarditis, an enlargement of the lining of the heart, in 2021. Gigante is already an incredibly high achiever. She graduated from the University of Melbourne with a double degree in geography and linguistics as a Chancellor's Scholar off the back of an incredible 99.95 ATAR score. The year after, Gigante burst onto the road cycling scene by claiming the Australian road race title as an 18-year-old. But, successful Giro aside, her primary focus at the Tour Gigante has been to help AG Insurance-Soudal team leader Kim le Court-Pienaar, to an impressive degree of success so far. Le Court finished second on stage one and third in stage two, which was enough for the Mauritian to take the yellow jersey for a single day. She currently sits third overall, 12 seconds behind Dutch legend Vos. So now, with the road starting to point upwards, is the former Australian national champion looking at her own goals? "I don't think my goals have changed," Gigante said, prior to the race getting started. "But I do feel that I have both more confidence and less pressure at the same time, which is a really nice feeling." The first four stages have not been exactly flat, with an average elevation gain of 1,179 metres on each stage. But Wednesday's fifth stage sees a leap to 1,843m elevation gain in 165.8km of racing on the road from Futuroscope to Guéret, the majority of which takes place in the final 60km. From that point on, the road gets steeper and more mountainous, culminating with a colossal eighth stage on Saturday night, where the peloton will climb 3,600m in just 111.9km of racing, finishing on the legendary Col de la Madeleine. There is then another 3,000m climbing day on Sunday featuring the Col de Joux Plane and Col du Corbier before an uphill finish to Châtel les Portes du Soleil on the Swiss border. "It's a back-ended course design," Gigante said. "The week starts with five rolling and punchy, shorter, sprintier stages, which suit Kim really well," Gigante said, "They don't suit me well. "I just have to try to get through and, if I can limit time loss on the general classification for myself as well, that will be a helpful bonus coming into the hillier and harder stages. "If I am still up there in the overall classification, I think we will have two cards to play." Job done. Gigante sits in 19th place overall after the fourth stage, just 51 seconds behind race leader Marianne Vos. More pressingly, she is just 29 seconds behind defending champion Katarzyna Niewiadoma and 26 seconds behind overall favourite Demi Vollering. In other words, well within striking distance of the race lead. And on roads well suited to the young Australian, who excels when the gradient gets steep enough for the air to be filled with the burning smell of clutches as support vehicles struggle to keep up. "I like them more," Gigante said of the mountain stages. "They're so challenging and when the going gets tough, the tough get going, that's what I like to think. "When the bunch gets smaller and smaller and people are dropping off, everyone's legs are dying and you can hear the panting around you, that's when I really love it. "You just learn to tune out … you're also embracing the pain, your legs are burning, your lungs are on fire, you're hopefully dropping others… "It's a time when I can put the hurt on others. If I want to make it faster and that's my job, I can do it, which is a good feeling, being able to drop the other riders. "But," Gigante adds, "they can drop me and smash me on the sprintier stages". No Aussie has won the Tour de France Femmes in its short three-year history, with Elizabeth Hepple's third place in the 1989 Tour de France Féminin the nation's only podium finisher in a Tour de France-affiliated stage race. In that 1984–1993 race, no Aussie won a stage, either, although in the Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale, a race unaffiliated with the Tour de France held between 1994 and 2009, Emma Rickards (2), Lynn Nixon (1), Juanita Feldhahn (1) and Anna Millward (1) all recorded stage wins. Additionally, Chloe Hosking won the 2016 edition of the one-day race La Course by Le Tour de France. Neither has an Aussie walked away with the famed polka dot jersey for the best climber at the Tour, but it is entirely possible that Gigante could break that jersey duck. The Tour de France Femmes is considered one of women's cycling's grand tours, but in truth the one-week stage race bears little resemblance to the three weeks of torment the riders go through in the three men's grand tours. Those three races, the Tour de France, Vuelta a España and Giro d'Italia, are the only stage races that last longer than a week on the men's tour. The Women's equivalents, although growing, are still just a week long, similar to other stage races such as the Tour Down Under. That is not from a lack of want, though, with Gigante keen for a longer race for the women. "For sure," Gigante said when asked if she wanted the race to be longer than just a week. "I'd like longer stages, hillier stages, more stages … The harder the better. "This is my second Tour de France, I raced last year [finishing seventh overall], and it's one day longer [this year]. "Especially, the diesel engine that I am, I think a longer tour would suit me better. "But also I think it's what the fans are wanting. "Last year was so exciting, there was only 4 seconds separating first and second overall at the end of the eight days. I don't expect it to be as close this year. But I do think it will be a really fierce battle. "Even with the Giro, it wasn't really televised in Australia, but the mount of media and the number of people messaging me or commenting on Instagram was insane, and that's the Giro, not the Tour. "I think the fanbase is really increasing for women's cycling. The riders are ready for it."
7NEWS
7 minutes ago
- 7NEWS
Mitch Owen set to play first ODI for Australia but Jake Fraser-McGurk gets dumped
Big-hitting allrounder Mitch Owen is set to play his first ODI for Australia after making a stunning T20 debut against the West Indies. The Hobart Hurricanes hero has been selected in both of Australia's white-ball squads for their upcoming matches against South Africa in Darwin, Cairns and Mackay. On debut, Owen smashed a powerful fifty last week against the West Indies. Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today In four matches for Australia in the Caribbean, the 23-year-old averaged 41.66, also hitting 37 and 36 not out to go with his stunning debut knock. It has been a rapid rise for Owen since last December, going from a virtual unknown before the BBL started to now being an important part of Australia's future. 'As we build towards the T20 World Cup the flexibility and depth shown in the West Indies, outside of the obvious results, has been a huge positive,' chairman of selectors George Bailey said. 'The flexibility within the batting order and ability of bowlers to bowl in different stages of the innings were particularly pleasing to see. 'Mitch Owen and Matt Kuhnemann making their respective debuts and the preparation and work done by Nathan Ellis to allow him to play all five matches were highlights.' Three-format stars Travis Head and Josh Hazlewood return after resting for the 5-0 whitewash of the West Indies that followed the 3-0 win in the Test series. Test and ODI captain Pat Cummins will sit out both series, allowing him to prepare for the Ashes, starting in November. As expected Jake Fraser-McGurk has been axed after a torrid 12 months. Fraser-McGurk was unexpectedly recalled to face the West Indies, but was dropped after the first match. WA pair Cooper Connolly and Aaron Hardie have also made way, as has spinner Tanveer Sangha. Australian T20 squad: Mitchell Marsh (capt), Sean Abbott, Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matt Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Owen, Matthew Short, Adam Zampa. Australian ODI squad: Mitchell Marsh (capt), Xavier Bartlett, Alex Carey, Ben Dwarshuis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Lance Morris, Mitchell Owen, Matthew Short, Adam Zampa.
ABC News
37 minutes ago
- ABC News
Maya Joint upsets hometown hero Leylah Fernandez at Canadian Open
Australian teenager Maya Joint has brought in-form local hope Leylah Fernandez crashing back down to Earth at the Canadian Open, where top seed Coco Gauff was given an almighty scare before advancing. Fernandez, a former US Open finalist now ranked 24th in the world, collected the biggest title of her career on Sunday when she won the DC Open in Washington, thrashing Anna Kalinskaya 6-1, 6-2 in the final. But her return home in triumph did not last long, with Joint beating the Quebec native 6-4, 6-1 in Montreal on Tuesday (local time). It was quick revenge for Joint, who lost 6-3, 6-3 to Fernandez in the first round in Washington. Fernandez later criticised the scheduling in Montreal, saying she had been hoping for extra rest before returning to the court in Canada. She said she had received "a lot of promises" that she would play during Tuesday's night session, giving her more time to recover between the two tournaments, but learned on Sunday while travelling that would not be the case. "That hurt me because I was very looking forward to be playing at night, but I guess it's a little bit political issues at that point," Fernandez said. Instead, top-seeded Gauff played fellow American Danielle Collins to open the night session. Montreal tournament director Valerie Tetreault said she promised Fernandez she would "fight so that she could have the time she wanted", but that ultimately the WTA Tour determined scheduling. The scheduling almost backfired, with Gauff being pushed to the brink before squeaking past Collins 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2). On a much happier note, Joint, ranked 45th in the world and already a two-time WTA title winner this year, now meets American 28th seed McCartney Kessler. If she wins that match, next in line would be rising Russian Mirra Andreeva, who is yet to play in Montreal having received a bye, then a walkover after Bianca Andreescu withdrew. That would be in the round of 32, a stage another Aussie has already reached. Seeded 15, Daria Kasatkina was given a bye in the first round, and on Tuesday she beat Anna Blinkova 6-1, 6-4. Kasatkina next faces 24th seed Marta Kostyuk, of Ukraine. Elsewhere, seventh seed seed Jasmine Paoloini was surprised by Japan's Aoi Ito 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5), but eighth seed Emma Navarro progressed, as did ninth-seeded Elena Rybakina. AAP
