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TDF STAGE 3 - THEY'VE ALL GONE DOWN

11:06·28 June 2021

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

Roglič losing a minute matters less than the road rash — bad sleep, soreness and nerves compound hard before a time trial.
When GC teams and sprint trains fight for the same narrow road, crashes aren't bad luck — they're a predictable outcome you can plan around as a race organiser.
Rider safety appeals made on race morning carry almost no weight; structural change needs to happen in the planning phase, months out.
If you've crashed and written it off as 'just road rash', factor in the broken sleep, stiffness and mental skittishness that follow — your next few days on the bike will reflect it.
Brittany's roads are genuinely sketchy even at amateur level — if you're racing or riding there, treat every corner as blind and expect no run-off.

Absolute chaos again on the Tour. Almost every GC rider hit the deck. How do we stop this carnage?

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KEY QUOTES

“We talk about the first week of Grand Tours being very dangerous, and we've media pressure with team pressure, we sponsor pressure and then I flagged at the outset the first four days in Brittany. You're going to combine all that pressure with the narrow roads and twisty roads and no run-offs on the side of Brittany and exposed. I had said I raced up there and I knew it was going to be like that because it's sketchy and amateur racing up there.”
Anthony Walsh — Roadman Cycling podcast host

“We can trivialize it and we often do in cycling with terms like it's just road rash. But it means if you've had road rash, you're stuck to the sheets all night tonight, your back is aching, you can't sleep well, you're broken sleep, tomorrow you're waking up for breakfast, you're yawning, you're not recovered, you're sore, you've no motivation, you're nervous in the bunch. It's not just road rash.”
Anthony Walsh — Roadman Cycling podcast host

“There are such small roads and the sense in the final, we knew gaps were going to appear, we made an appeal to the organizer to take the time at 8km today for safety. But nobody listened to their appeal, they wanted to take the time instead of the last 3k, inside the last 8k.”
Anthony Walsh — Roadman Cycling podcast host

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT3 SECTIONS

Stage 3 Carnage and Patreon Note

It's absolute carnage on the Tour de France. It's stage three. Let's cure that intro! The big question is this. How do we use cycling as a tool to improve our health, our happiness and our longevity? That is the question and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Walsh and welcome to the Rowman Podcast. Roadman, welcome back to another Roadman, Saitland podcast, it was absolute carnage. There is blood, skin and bone on the 183km stage tree route from Laurent to Pontevie. Oh my god, it was like watching a horror movie, you couldn't look away. The last 25km are just totally littered in crashes and it's taken out. Almost every GC rider has either been eliminated or lost time that they really really could have done without. Let's dive in and try and unpack this one a little. Before I dive in, a gentle nudge about Patreon, because Patreon's how we phone the podcast, it's every day I'm talking about the model we have, it's one of soundness. The move in podcast land at the moment is to go to platforms like Luminary where you take the podcast and you put it behind a paid firewall. Sure, you lose a portion of your audience, but a portion of your loyalty will come and pay you a five-year-old to listen to it. And that ends up being quite a big figure. But I've chosen not to do that. Despite a lot of these platforms reaching out, I've chosen not to do it because it means people that can't afford the five-year-old to get access to the podcast. And I want to get it into as many people's ears as possible. So instead, our model is one of soundness and its own reciprocity. If you're in join the podcast and you can afford the price of a beer once a month, buy me that price of a beer once a month on patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore waltz the link is in the bio and that means everybody can listen for free. So it's just it appealing to your better nature. Right today's podcast is oh my god lads I'm literally difficult to watch that I'm heading out to do a club later grace tonight and the last thing I needed to see was a crash every fucking few kilometres today. It was absolutely shocking. Look, let me try and pick a bright spark out of how Machuveander Paul was looking, resplendent in his yellow jersey case, and nice to see kind of a traditional look. He did go with the full on banana yellow bike, but he went with a black short, which was kind of a classy look. I can't ever remember three days in the Tour de France like this. There is Crashfield. We talk about the first week of Grand Tours being very dangerous, and we've media pressure with team pressure, we sponsor pressure and then I flagged at the outset the first four days in Brittany. You're going to combine all that pressure with the narrow roads and twisty roads and no run-offs on the side of Brittany and exposed. I had said I raced up there and I knew it was going to be like that because it's sketchy and amateur racing up there. I knew this was going to be a crash fest and the crash fest started off early today. Robert Hessink is unfortunately out of this year's Tour de France and he's going to be a big loss for Yumbo Vismet and Garran Thomas also went down heavy in the same crash. Separated shoulder were led to believe he got back in as the Peloton set up a little bit but he's lost bundles of time and I suppose for me the most disappointing thing about today is the Reuters don't have a voice. The Reuters unanimously went to the race organizers to ASO this morning and Tim de Klerk the human tractor from Quickstep who we see on the front so often. Afterwards, he said, there are such small roads and the sense in the final, we knew gaps were going to appear, we made an appeal to the organizer to take the time at 8km today for safety.

Roglič Crashes and Caleb Down

But nobody listened to their appeal, they wanted to take the time instead of the last 3k, inside the last 8k. And it makes sense, look you're a GC rider, you're not getting dropped there, it's a safety thing. And the road is too narrow, and when the road is narrow, you have GC teams battling for our position with sprint teams. You have 100 guys who want to be in the front and there's room for 20. It doesn't go, so something has to give and that's what happens. You have all these alpha males who won't give an inch fighting for position and this is what happens. With 10km to go we see in Roglic hitting the deck hard. The whole Yumbovisma team stopped from essentially a TTT for Yumbovisma into the finish and Roglics end up losing over a minute at the end. When you get a crash like that in Roglic, it just looks like road rash. You rip the pieces and a lot of road rash. But we can trivialize it and we often do in cycling with terms like it's just road rash. But it means if you've had road rash, you're stuck to the sheets all night tonight, your back is aching, you can't sleep well, you're broken sleep, tomorrow you're waking up for breakfast, you're yawning, you're not recovered, you're sore, you've no motivation, you're nervous in the bunch. It's not just road rash. This has a huge knock on effect and were two days from the individual time trial which Roglitch needs to perform in if he's to have any hope of getting back into this GC battle. We were four-way to go again, we did another massive crash and another pile up on the corner and then the last of our crash as we've seen with just a couple of hundred meters going with Caleb and Caleb looks real bad as I've recorded this podcast when the back finishers are coming in. Caleb's still down receiving medical treatment so hopefully Caleb, You know, it's terrible to think his wife, I don't know if she's a girl from Cork, married to the former owner of Aqua Blue, Rick Delaney, his daughter, Caleb's Marita. And you know, it's horrible to think that somebody's at home, a loved one, watching their loved one, their husband on the floor, receiving emergency medical treatment. But Caleb fucking wiped Saigon out, and Saigon's lucky to walk away from that one as well. And look, it looked bad, it looked bad. And so like, who's still in this GC battle? Well everybody's lost time. Pogacha only last like 30 seconds. Roglic lost over a minute. Garran Thomas for me is out of the GC battle. So for me GC, now it's leading the race the moment. It's still Machuvander Paul with Alifelie but eight seconds. Carapaz has snuck back up because he avoided a lot of the carnage today at 31 seconds. Wilk Van Aert's at 31 seconds also. Kalderman's at 38, Pogacha's at 39, and Roglic's back at 121. Roglic isn't out of the GC battle. Pogacha is obviously not out with the GC battle. But it just depends how they feel for the individual time trial now. Today's stage win was Tim Mille, and this is the man who had no contract about 18 months ago and talk about his fortunes changing. And Alpus and Fenix, it's their first ever to order France, and they would have won two stages on the bounce and got a one-two today with the lead out man, Phillips, hanging on for seconds to the proid Buhani. Isn't it crazy if there was a crash in Buhani wasn't involved? What the hell's going on with that? Valerini was fought and Sonny Cabrelli was fifth. The narrow roads in Brittany, they caused absolute havoc. And folks, we've got another day in Brittany because tomorrow we're taking on stage four from redone to figure is. And this is a stage that we've ridden three times in the past 10 years. And it's basically pan-flass the whole day. You might remember this stage. This is where Cavendish went like head to head against Gripen, Saigon and the finish line a few years ago.

Rider Safety Versus TV Spectacle

It is a slightly new finish with a, but there's absolutely almost no elevation in this entire stage, 150.4 kilometers, almost no elevation. So we're going to see another bunch sprint. Honestly, we're going to see more crashes. I'm hoping that they listen to the Reuters tomorrow and so it'll take the time at 8K instead of 4K. I don't know what you can do with it. It's, I just don't know what you can can do, there's pressure coming from every angle at these riders, it's in their earpieces all day saying move up, move up. But unfortunately every single rider is getting that in their ears saying move up, move up. The roads are too narrow, you can't move up. We also can't take this out of boy grace and as shit as it is to watch someone hitting the ground. And I've been that dude who's hitting the ground and I tell you it's not fun. But on the flip side of that, I'm there and this is to be a little bit cynical, I'm there watching a TV today and it's fucking unreal entertainment. So how you balance these two, I don't know, that's always been the dilemma. You know, the Reuters want one thing, they want safety, but safety doesn't really make for a brilliant spectacular TV. If that's a stage where they roll in and the bunch of print is non-eventful, it's a pretty boring stage. But now you media your podcasters, everyone has stuff to talk about and that's not right, but I don't know where you find that balance and that's something we're going to have to strive towards. And it's something that we need to have open the base around because there's just not enough debate around Royalty safety versus because the Royaltys on one hand just want to blanket safety. Like to rock up on the morning of the race and say, you know, change it to HK finishing time. Like, you know, like Roy Heen and Saipan, like the balls should have been here two weeks ago. Like you knew the stage of the Tour de France. You knew that was a downhill sprint, you knew we were in Brittany, you knew how many riders were in the race. This can happen months ago, this advocacy process can start. It shouldn't have to happen on the morning or the fucking race where Reuters decided to get together and go oh what's on today? Oh shit this really dangerous finish. Now we go to the ASO and get them to change the rules which has never happened before at the last minute. We need to be a bit more organized than this. It's like a protest in a transition year school over a work experience environment. The Reuters need to get together, they need to have some some sort of centralised voice which represents them in some sort of articulate or credible way rather than these haphazard last minute appeals. Roadman, that's it for today, a fairly traumatic stage to watch but definitely one that's going to stimulate some debate. Thanks for joining me and I'm going to chat to you again tomorrow for stage 4 of the Tour of France. Hey everybody, it's Anthony again. Really quick, I want to invite you to join arguably the best thing I've ever put out inside the roadman community. It's a challenge. It's a challenge called a 14-day kickstart challenge. So regardless of where your fitness is at right now, this is going to be the catalyst for making you faster and making you the leaner. I've created this challenge to take the guesswork out of everything. It's 14 days of training plans, regardless of what your level is. There's the master's beginner, advanced. There's meal plans, shopping list and even a video course holding your hand and talking you true at all. So what I recommend you do right now is just stop everything, press pause on this audio and go to roadmansoycling.com forward slash 14 day or check out the link in the bio that roadmansoycling.com slash 14 day.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What happened at Tour de France 2021 Stage 3?+

Stage 3 of the 2021 Tour de France, a 183km run from Lorient to Pontivy, was disrupted by multiple serious crashes on the narrow roads of Brittany. Primož Roglič lost over a minute, Geraint Thomas suffered a separated shoulder, Robert Gesink abandoned, and both Caleb Ewan and Peter Sagan crashed in the final sprint, which was won by Tim Merlier.

Why were there so many crashes at the 2021 Tour de France?+

The narrow, technical roads of Brittany gave the peloton very little margin for error, and the high-speed, nervous racing in the opening stages compounded the danger. Anthony Walsh argues the repeated crashes were not simply bad luck but a structural failure in race organisation, pointing to the rider union's ignored request to extend the neutralised finish zone from 3km to 8km as a clear missed opportunity to reduce the carnage.

How do you stop crashes at the Tour de France?+

One concrete step is applying the 3km safety rule at a greater distance from the finish. The rider union specifically requested an 8km neutralisation zone for the 2021 Brittany stages, a request that was not acted upon. Extending that buffer would prevent GC riders losing time and suffering injuries caused by sprint-finish pile-ups they have no direct involvement in.

Did Geraint Thomas crash at the 2021 Tour de France Stage 3?+

Yes, Geraint Thomas crashed during Stage 3 and suffered a separated shoulder. He continued racing but the injury left him compromised for the remainder of the race. It was part of a wave of incidents that affected nearly every major general classification contender across the first three stages.

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KEY QUOTES

“We talk about the first week of Grand Tours being very dangerous, and we've media pressure with team pressure, we sponsor pressure and then I flagged at the outset the first four days in Brittany. You're going to combine all that pressure with the narrow roads and twisty roads and no run-offs on the side of Brittany and exposed. I had said I raced up there and I knew it was going to be like that because it's sketchy and amateur racing up there.”
Anthony Walsh — Roadman Cycling podcast host

“We can trivialize it and we often do in cycling with terms like it's just road rash. But it means if you've had road rash, you're stuck to the sheets all night tonight, your back is aching, you can't sleep well, you're broken sleep, tomorrow you're waking up for breakfast, you're yawning, you're not recovered, you're sore, you've no motivation, you're nervous in the bunch. It's not just road rash.”
Anthony Walsh — Roadman Cycling podcast host

“There are such small roads and the sense in the final, we knew gaps were going to appear, we made an appeal to the organizer to take the time at 8km today for safety. But nobody listened to their appeal, they wanted to take the time instead of the last 3k, inside the last 8k.”
Anthony Walsh — Roadman Cycling podcast host

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What happened at Tour de France 2021 Stage 3?+

Why were there so many crashes at the 2021 Tour de France?+

How do you stop crashes at the Tour de France?+

Did Geraint Thomas crash at the 2021 Tour de France Stage 3?+

TDF STAGE 3 - THEY'VE ALL GONE DOWN

KEY QUOTES

Stage 3 Carnage and Patreon Note

Roglič Crashes and Caleb Down

Rider Safety Versus TV Spectacle

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

NEVER MISS AN EPISODE

READ THE GUIDE

RELATED EPISODES

ALLAN DAVIS - TDF STAGE 3 SPRINT SHOW DOWN

VULETA STAGE 7 - THE END FOR VALVERDE

VULETA STAGE 6 - MOVISTAR POISED TO STRIKE

RELATED CONTENT

ALLAN DAVIS - TDF STAGE 3 SPRINT SHOW DOWN

VULETA STAGE 7 - THE END FOR VALVERDE

VULETA STAGE 6 - MOVISTAR POISED TO STRIKE

LIKED THIS EPISODE?

TDF STAGE 3 - THEY'VE ALL GONE DOWN

KEY QUOTES

Stage 3 Carnage and Patreon Note

Roglič Crashes and Caleb Down

Rider Safety Versus TV Spectacle

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

NEVER MISS AN EPISODE

READ THE GUIDE

RELATED EPISODES

ALLAN DAVIS - TDF STAGE 3 SPRINT SHOW DOWN

VULETA STAGE 7 - THE END FOR VALVERDE

VULETA STAGE 6 - MOVISTAR POISED TO STRIKE

RELATED CONTENT

ALLAN DAVIS - TDF STAGE 3 SPRINT SHOW DOWN

VULETA STAGE 7 - THE END FOR VALVERDE

VULETA STAGE 6 - MOVISTAR POISED TO STRIKE

LIKED THIS EPISODE?

TDF STAGE 3 - THEY'VE ALL GONE DOWN

KEY QUOTES

1.Stage 3 Carnage and Patreon Note

2.Roglič Crashes and Caleb Down

3.Rider Safety Versus TV Spectacle

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

NEVER MISS AN EPISODE

READ THE GUIDE

RELATED EPISODES

ALLAN DAVIS - TDF STAGE 3 SPRINT SHOW DOWN

VULETA STAGE 7 - THE END FOR VALVERDE

VULETA STAGE 6 - MOVISTAR POISED TO STRIKE

RELATED CONTENT

ALLAN DAVIS - TDF STAGE 3 SPRINT SHOW DOWN

VULETA STAGE 7 - THE END FOR VALVERDE

VULETA STAGE 6 - MOVISTAR POISED TO STRIKE

LIKED THIS EPISODE?

TDF STAGE 3 - THEY'VE ALL GONE DOWN

KEY QUOTES

1.Stage 3 Carnage and Patreon Note

2.Roglič Crashes and Caleb Down

3.Rider Safety Versus TV Spectacle

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

NEVER MISS AN EPISODE

READ THE GUIDE

RELATED EPISODES

ALLAN DAVIS - TDF STAGE 3 SPRINT SHOW DOWN

VULETA STAGE 7 - THE END FOR VALVERDE

VULETA STAGE 6 - MOVISTAR POISED TO STRIKE

RELATED CONTENT

ALLAN DAVIS - TDF STAGE 3 SPRINT SHOW DOWN

VULETA STAGE 7 - THE END FOR VALVERDE

VULETA STAGE 6 - MOVISTAR POISED TO STRIKE

LIKED THIS EPISODE?

Stage 3 Carnage and Patreon Note

Roglič Crashes and Caleb Down

Rider Safety Versus TV Spectacle

Stage 3 Carnage and Patreon Note

Roglič Crashes and Caleb Down

Rider Safety Versus TV Spectacle