On what was a memorable day for Australian cycling with Simon Clarke taking a landmark win on Stage 5 of the Tour de France, it is one that will be remembered for all the wrong reasons by Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) who again crashed out of the Tour de France for a second consecutive season.
It was Stage 3 of the Tour de France last year that saw Haig fall on dangerous, narrow, descending roads on the run-in to a sprint finish, and again he fell victim on one of the most dangerous stages of the Tour. It wasn’t the cobbles that claimed Haig, but an errant hay bale meant to protect riders that was on the course as the riders exited a roundabout.
The hay bale was covered in a plastic wrapping and appeared to fall out onto the road as the peloton approached, with first a Groupama-FDJ rider clipping it, with Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) then left with nowhere to go as he hit it head on, flipping to the ground. That saw a number of other riders brought down including Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) and Haig.
"Luckily, I’m still here. I didn’t see really good, but I think a motor touched the protection and it slid into the middle of the road," Roglič told the media post-stage.
Roglič suffered a dislocated shoulder and was able to remount, though he conceded two minutes to most of his general classification rivals. The news was worse for Haig, who wasn’t able to continue the race, taken to hospital for scans.
"Jack had multiple abrasions and bruises over the body and required stitches for a cut above the elbow," said Bahrain Victorious in a statement. "CT scans also revealed multiple non-displaced wrist fractures. Fortunately, Jack had no concussion or head injury and will travel home tomorrow."
It wasn’t a good day for the other main Australian hope for the general classification with Ben O’Connor suffering an untimely puncture when the race was at its fastest, dropping gradually further and further back from the peloton and eventually conceding over three minutes to most of his rivals.
The Tour de France continues with a hilly Stage 6 over 219.9 kilometres from Binche to Longwy. Watch on SBS, SBS On Demand and the SBS ŠKODA Tour Tracker.
