A spectator captured the incident on video, which showed Geniez and Dupont in a heated discussion, with Geniez grabbing Dupont's jersey. A moto rider finally breaks them up and Geniez rides off, leaving a stunned Dupont behind.
Both Geniez and Dupont lost 1:37 after being caught up in a crash with around 11 kilometres remaining of the stage. The time loss will be a big blow to Geniez who was hoping to mount a general classification bid after his ninth place in last year’s race. The Frenchman is now over two minutes down in the overall classification as the race heads for its first Italian stages. It was a bad day for AG2R-La Mondiale too, who lost one of their leaders in Jean Christophe Peraud after he crashed earlier in the stage.
Upon arrival in Italy, Geniez underwent an x-ray on his left-wrist, after crashing in the first three stages, which revealed no fractures although he "undergo further clinical assessment in the next few days."
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