Tour de France 2022: Huge blow for Tadej Pogacar as key lieutenant Rafal Majka abandons with muscle tear

Rafal Majka (UAE Team Emirates) will not start Stage 17 of the Tour de France in another blow to Tadej Pogacar's hopes of securing the yellow jersey. The Polish rider suffered a muscle tear after his chain snapped while climbing on Stage 16, and UAE Team Emirates team principal Mauro Gianetti has confirmed to Eurosport that Majka will be unable to continue the Tour. Ad/> Majka had been Pogacar's key mountain lieutenant and likely to play a key role across the two remaining stages in the Pyrenees as the Slovenian looked to overhaul Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma) at the top of the general classification standings.

/> Tour de France'It's not nice' — Gianetti reacts to Majka having to abandon Tour with injuryAN HOUR AGO It continues a disastrous tour for the team, who also lost Marc Soler yesterday after the Spanish rider finished outside of the stage time limit after appearing to be suffering from heat stroke. /> “Unfortunately this morning Rafal Majka cannot take the start," Gianetti told Eurosport. “He has a big laceration of the muscle after the accident with the broken chain.

“He tried this morning to do a small warm-up to see if it would be possible to take the start, but unfortunately he cannot. The pain is too high." UAE Team Emirates now have just four riders left in the peloton that will take the start in Saint-Gaudens. Along with Soler and Majka, the team were shorn of another key climber in George Bennett on the first rest day after the New Zealander's positive test for Covid, which followed that of Vegard Stake Laengen in the opening week of the Tour.

«We have no words for our Tour so far,» Gianetti continued. «So many disadvantages. »It is what it is.