🎥 New footage shows brutal Vingegaard and Molenaar crash; latter withdraws from Tour de France: 'Vive le Tour!'

Olav Kooij won the fifth stage of the Tour de France on Wednesday riding for Decathlon CMA CGM, but not before a bad crash brought down several key riders. GC hopeful Jonas Vingegaard was caught up with others, but Caja Rural's Alex Molenaar was the hardest hit. The Caja Rural rider was ultimately forced to withdraw. Shocking new footage shows why, leading to Molenaar commenting on his withdrawal.

Let’s go back to Wednesday afternoon, when, after a rather uneventful stage, we saw the peloton pick up speed heading toward the sprint in Pau. This caused some nervous moments all around, and things went wrong in a fast right-hand turn. We soon saw several Caja-Rural riders lying on the ground, and one of them was Molenaar.

The Dutchman stayed on the ground for a long time and was visibly dizzy when he got back up. He showed grit in finishing the stage, but bad news came later that Wednesday evening. Molenaar's head seemed to be ok, but had suffered a fracture in his metacarpal bone. So, that was the end of the Tour de France for the rider who had spent one day riding in the polka-dot jersey.

We already knew that Molenaar had hit the ground hard, but with new footage that has surfaced on Instagram, we can now see it for ourselves. We see the peloton diving hard into the turn, followed by a brutal crash. Molenaar slams hard into the ground and remains there for a moment. It’s not a pretty sight.

Later that Wednesday evening, Molenaar posted a response to his withdrawal on his own Instagram account. “Unfortunately, my Tour de France has come to an end. After a serious crash, I hit my head and hand hard. Fortunately, my head is fine, but I’ve broken my first metacarpal bone and will need surgery,” said the Dutch rider.

A major disappointment, of course. “I’m incredibly sorry that I can’t continue this wonderful race and can’t fulfill my dream of reaching Paris, but that’s just the way this sport is: sometimes it’s the most beautiful in the world, and sometimes the toughest,” he says, well aware of the harsh realities of cycling.

"I'm going home with memories I'll cherish forever and with the Tour de France King of the Mountains jersey—something I never would have dared to dream of. Now all that's left is to wish my teammates the best of luck for the rest of the race. "Vive le Tour," he concludes beautifully. Get well soon, Alex!