Tadej Pogacar makes Tour de France statement as Simon Clarke wins stage

Tadej Pogacar made a major statement in his bid for a third straight Tour de France title as his main rival Primoz Roglic suffered the full effects of ‘the hell of the north’ and had to fix his own dislocated shoulder on a chaotic day on the cobbles around Roubaix.

Simon Clarke claimed Israel-PremierTech’s first Tour stage victory from a breakaway but Pogacar was the big winner on the frantic stage between Lille and Arenberg, taking advantage of injury and incident for his main rivals to gain time, his late attack another display of supreme power and confidence.

Geraint Thomas was among dozens of riders to crash but Roglic was the biggest loser, taken out not by a cobble but an errant hay bale on a roundabout. The Slovenian put his first-aid skills to use as he popped his own shoulder back into place.

“I couldn’t put it immediately back in on the road so I had to sit in the chair of a spectator,” he said in his usual matter-of-fact manner. “I have a technique to put it back in.”

The 32-year-old intends to continue but, having lost more than two minutes, Jumbo-Visma will now surely line up behind Jonas Vingegaard, second overall in last year’s Tour after Roglic crashed out then too.

Vingegaard’s afternoon was far from straightforward, though, with the Dane suffering a costly mechanical issue which forced race leader Wout van Aert to burn his resources in limiting the losses, only just hanging on to the yellow jersey.

Their chase to get back on helped Thomas out too as he finished the race with broken gears after a crash, and they emerged from the dust to come in as part of a group over a minute behind Clarke and 13 seconds behind Pogacar.

“I’ve no idea who was where by the end,” said Thomas. “It definitely could have been