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Jai Hindley says a crash on the Tour de France has not solely value him his place on the rostrum but in addition left him with actual “ache within the arse” after a dramatic day that includes one other spectacular duel between the 2 race leaders.
The Australian contender’s 10 days within the top-three are over after Hindley received caught up in a mass early crash which left him floored after which having to experience with a painful bottom for the remainder of the gruelling 14th stage.
He paid for his struggling, cracking in a while the ultimate Col de Joux Airplane, whereas Spain’s Carlos Rodriguez not solely received the stage however leapfrogged over Hindley into third place by only one second.
The person from Perth had been within the top-three ever since his sensible fifth-stage win had briefly given him the race lead, earlier than Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar turned the Tour right into a two-horse race.
The pair had been at it once more on an exciting 152km stage 14 from Annemasse, with Pogacar beating Vingegaard within the dash for second place behind Rodriguez, however truly dropping one other second within the common classification standings after the Danish chief picked up a vital bonus in an earlier mountain dash.
However whereas Vingegaard now holds a 10-second lead over Pogacar, it’s all starting to look harder by the day for BORA-hansgrohe’s Hindley, who’s now 4 minutes 44 seconds off the lead, whereas additionally having to now chase Ineos-Grenadiers’ Rodriguez, to whom he misplaced 1:46 on Sunday.
Hindley ultimately completed sixth on the stage, however battled courageously to restrict his losses after the early mass crash which prompted a stoppage of half-an-hour within the race.
Hindley was caught up in a large pile-up that pressured 5 riders to desert earlier than one other two additionally crashed out, and counted himself fortunate that he was in a position to battle on.
“I’ve no thought what occurred within the crash. We had been simply laying down earlier than I knew it, hopefully, the opposite guys are all proper. I’ve received fairly a little bit of ache in my ass truly, in my bottom, so it wasn’t actually preferrred – however that’s bike racing,” he mentioned.
“I believe it’s extra more likely to be a muscle or one thing, nevertheless it’s fairly sore for the time being and hopefully we’ll attempt to kind it out over the subsequent few days.”
There was drama on the high of the Joux Airplane, the place a motorcycle blocked Pogacar’s efforts to race away from Vingegaard and take the very important three bonus seconds which the Dane ended up grabbing in a burst for the road.
The Slovenian two-time champ Pogacar felt it was his personal fault, shrugging: “It was one wasted bullet after already doing the massive climb to do one dash for nothing.
It’s a little bit of a disgrace however I don’t suppose it can change the result. Okay, I messed it up slightly bit however it’s what it’s.”
Pogacar had attacked with 3.7km of the ultimate climb remaining, initially distancing Vingegaard however by no means getting greater than 20 metres clear.