Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) is the latest big-name rider to crash at the Critérium du Dauphiné, suffering serious road rash and shredding his jersey and shorts mid-way through stage 4 to Megeve.
Early in the day 2019 Tour de France winner Egan Bernal abandoned the Criterium du Dauphine before the start due to a back problem, then an early crash forced Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) to also quit the race.
The loss of Bernal, Buchmann and Kruijswijk meant that three of the top four finishers of last year's Tour de France have been forced to quit the Criterium du Dauphine, while Roglic, who won the Vuelta a España and finished third in the Giro d'Italia has also been left battered and bruised just two weeks from the start of this year's Tour de France.
Roglic crashed after 82km of the 153.5km stage from Ugine to Megève, apparently on his own. He got up but apparently was close to abandoning the race, only to get back in the saddle and into the peloton with help from teammate Sepp Kuss.
The Jumbo-Visma team eased up their chase of the breakaway that include Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep) and and Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Ineos) as Roglic moved back up to the front.
To follow all the action from stage 4 of the Criterium du Dauphine, click here to follow our live updates.
More to follow.
