🎥 Watch on-board crash footage as XDS Astana and Groupama crash hard at the Tour de France team time trial
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Follow us on GoogleFor XDS Astana, the 2026 Tour de France team time trial turned into a minor drama. The Kazakh team got off to a decent start in Barcelona, but dropped out of the day’s top 20 after the second intermediate checkpoint. The team explained why afterwards.
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"A major setback for our team," XDS Astana wrote via its official channels on Saturday. "Three of our riders crashed during the first part of the team time trial." The riders involved were Simone Velasco, Nicolas Vinokourov, and Harold Tejada.
"All the riders finished the stage, but of course we lost a lot of time," he continued. A medical update later brought some good news: "No broken bones or serious injuries for our riders, but they have all sustained scrapes and bruises."
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Teunissen wants to make a comeback with Astana at the Tour de France
Mike Teunissen, the Dutch rider on the XDS Astana team in this Tour de France, posted a motivational message on his social media accounts. “This isn’t how we wanted to start this Tour de France, but we’re definitely going to fight our way back.”
In principle, Astana has brought an attacking eight-man squad to the Tour, though if Tejada is in top form, you can also dream of a strong general classification finish in the Tour de France. He won a stage in Paris-Nice earlier this year.
The highest-ranked rider is now Sergio Higuita, already 2.18 minutes behind stage winner and race leader Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike). Tejada crossed the finish line half a minute later. Velasco, nearly 6 minutes behind, was the last rider to finish the stage.
Groupama-FDJ United loses Berthet after just Stage 1
Groupama-FDJ United also suffered a crash—reportedly at the same spot as XDS Astana. However, the consequences were more serious; although Clément Berthet managed to finish the team time trial (placing 111th), bad news followed later.
"It could have been a perfect opening day, but unfortunately, the eighth-place finish in the team time trial was heavily overshadowed by Clément Berthet's withdrawal," the team stated via its official channels.
The 28-year-old Frenchman crossed the finish line alongside Guillaume Martin, who had also gone down. It turned out, however, that Berthet had sustained injuries; he reportedly failed the concussion protocol, meaning he cannot continue in the race.
Watch Tour de France crash footage on board with XDS Astana
David Bavin-HobbsChief Editor
David has been working in the sports & cycling industry for 16 years. Covering racing, business and technology, he has worked in communications for cycling companies, teams, and as a journalist. His proudest achievement is winning the first bike race he ever entered. He hasn't won a race since.
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