Dan Martin had a day he won't forget in a hurry on yesterday's stage 2 at Critérium du Dauphiné; crashing very hard and then struggling to the finish injured only to be pelted by huge hailstones on the final climb.
The first video below - recorded from the comfort of a team car - shows Martin forced to a stop such was the severity of the hailstones as he neared the finish line on the Col de Porte.
A group of police officers also stopped on the road gave him encouragement to keep going, which he did. Ireland's Martin then limped home in 145th place more than 25 minutes down.
He was taken out in a crash with just under 25km remaining and as the riders were bracing for the final climb. Sergio Higuita (EF Pro Cycling) was the first faller, at a traffic island in the middle of the road, and a number of others crash hard.
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Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) crashed hard and he remained on the tarmac for a prolonged period before dusting himself down and getting back onto his bike to chase back on.
However, while he made very good progress that was all wiped out on the final climb when the heavens opened just after Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) won the stage with an attack from the select group.
Martin was forced to a halt and to take shelter, resulting in his time loss from his crash and injuries being compounded by the extreme weather; large hailstones causing chaos. His team has reported he fell on his back earlier on the stage.
Nicolas Roche fared better in avoiding the crash surviving in the front group before being tailed off with about 5km to go to the finish as Team Ineos piled on the pressure.
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Roche (Team Sunweb) finished in 29th place at 2:27, a decent performance considering the damage that was caused by the battle up the climb between Team Ineos and Jumbo Visma,
Today's stage takes the riders 157km from Corenc to Saint-Martin-de-Belleville, with a summit finish 15.3km up the climb with a 5.9 per cent average gradient.
While Roglic now leads the race, Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) got closest to him yesterday, finishing in 2nd place at eight seconds. He is in the same position overall, just 12 seconds down, and appears to be shaping up nicely as the Tour approaches.
Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-hansgrohe) is 3rd overall at 14 seconds followed by
Team Ineos leader Egan Bernal, who looks below par but is still only 16 seconds
off yellow.
There are still
three hard stages to come before the race concludes, with more opportunities
for Team Ineos of Jumbo Visma to wrestle for superiority and for riders like
Pinot, who might have won last year’s Tour but for injury, to quietly work towards
their peak.
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