The extent of the crash suffered by Carlos Rodríguez during the Tour de France has emerged in this video recorded by a spectator at the roadside. The Ineos Grenadiers rider can been seen crashing onto his front, with his face hitting the tarmac as he slid across the road.
Sepp Kuss (Jumbo Visma) tries to bunny hop over Rodríguez but, unfortunately, rides over him, crashing hard himself. As other riders further back in the bunch speed by, Rodríguez is seen to stagger backwards a little and then to his left, before taking his bike.
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While the video does not show him resuming the stage, he did so quite quickly after the stage 20 crash, while descending. He then managed to put in a brilliant chase as the front of the race split on the road to Le Markstein.
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Rodríguez lost 52 seconds to the front group - Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Felix Gall (AG2R Citroën Team), Simon Yates (Team Jayco AlUla) and Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates). However, the Spanish rider limited his losses enough to only drop one place overall; from 4th to 5th, with Simon Yates leap-frogging him.
Both Kuss and Rodríguez looked battered at stage end, with their clothing and their flesh shredded and both riders' faces covered in blood from cuts they sustained during the crash. While those injuries were well documented, no close-up footage of the crash - and just how shook Rodríguez was - has emerged before now.
The clip above was posted on YouTube a number of weeks ago, but seems to have gone unnoticed by most, until it received more attention today.
