Opinion: Ineos Grenadiers and Geraint Thomas emerge unscathed from Jumbo-Visma’s day of hell

Last year Geraint Thomas and Primoz Roglic both saw their yellow jersey bids go up in smoke when crashing badly in Stage 3 on the same day that Jack Haig was forced out of the Tour. Fast forward 12 months and two stages and the Australian Haig was once again a DNF on a day both Thomas and Roglic hit the deck.

This time it was the same incident that brought all three crashing to earth – a freak occurrence involving a roadside hay bale dislodged by the TV motorbike and the devastation in its wake. Ad/> If Swiss powerhouse Stefan Kung (Groupama-FDJ) was able to take evasive action, Australia’s Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) stood no chance.

And when Ewan ploughed into the bale, the butterfly affect saw Roglic, Thomas and Haig all follow suit. Tour de FranceBlazin’ Saddles: 10 takeaways from the Tour’s Danish Grand Depart04/07/2022 AT 12:51 Simon Clarke takes last-gasp Stage 5 win in chaotic day on the cobbles Tour de France Stage 5, as it happened: Clarke victorious, Roglic on the ropes Van Aert, Roglic and Vingegaard incidents mar Jumbo-Visma's day It was a freak event of the kind that saw both Thomas and Mikel Landa’s Giro d’Italia bids come crashing down thanks to a badly parked race motorcycle at the foot of the climb of Blockhaus in 2017, or indeed Thomas’s chances again of the pink jersey in 2020 after hitting a stray bidon bouncing across the road.

Such unforeseeable incidents often play a pivotal role in the outcome of races. For Bahrain Victorious’s Haig, it’s now two Tours on the bounce that his race has ended before it’s even got started.

For Roglic, the setback this year may not be as severe as that when he lost even more time than the skin covering his backside following his run-in with Sonny Colbrelli in 2021. But