Tadej Pogacar's Tour de France hopes suffered a blow on Sunday as the Slovenian's key domestique Joao Almeida withdrew following a crash on Friday.

The seventh stage of the Tour de France was rattled by a heavy crash in the finale. Among the casualties were Thursday’s stage winner Ben Healy, João Almeida, Enric Mas, and Santiago Buitrago. Jack Haig also hit the ground: the Bahrain Victorious rider was forced to abandon the race after the hard crash,

A key teammate of Tour de France leader Tadej Pogačar has abandoned the race. João Almeida had fractured a rib during Stage 7 and was dropped early during Sunday’s ninth stage between Chinon