Pogačar sidesteps nervous incident that brings Majka to halt | Video

Rafal Majka suffers a mechanical and goes crash down onto the crossbar with his team leader just behind him

UAE Team Emirates were lucky to avoid a serious incident on today's stage 16 of the Tour de France when Rafal Majka was brought to an abrupt halt as he rode on the front of the select group. He had team leader - and Tour champion - Tadej Pogačar on his wheel at the time.

Majka had taken it up on the front and had shredded the select group on the final climb of the day, the Mur de Péguère. The Polish rider was out of the saddle on the front where he appeared to slip his chain, or perhaps break his gears.

The mechanical issue saw him drop down suddenly onto the crossbar. Thankfully he kept it upright and drifted to his left, and away from those riders just behind him. Majka immediately came to a stop, clearly in need of a new bike.

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His exit saw Sepp Kuss take it up on the front immediately for his Jumbo Visma team leader, and yellow jersey, Jonas Vingegaard. They set the pace up over the final climb as the breakaway was eight minutes up the road battling it out for stage honours.

In the end, the top three overall - Vingegaard, Pogačar and Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) - all finished in the same group after the 178.5km stage from Carcassonne to Foix. They were some 5:54 down on breakaway man and solo stage winner Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech).

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