Not for the faint of heart: Australian Chris Harper lost part of his thumb in Tour de France crash

Tom Pidcock will have to make do without his key climbing domestique for the rest of the Tour de France. Chris Harper will not be starting the tenth stage. The Australian rider from Pinarello - Q36.5 Pro Cycling crashed during the tenth stage to Le Lioran, at the same spot as his team leader. His team leader was able to continue without difficulty, but Harper was more severely affected: he had to withdraw from the race a day later with a strange injury.

Pidcock is, of course, known as one of the very best descenders in the peloton, but even the Brit can have a run of bad luck. He crossed the summit of the Puy Marie climb with the rest of the favorites. On the technical descent, he skidded out in a left-hand turn. Pidcock blamed the substance used to clean the road, but coach Kurt Bogaerts pointed to melted loose gravel.

In any case, the third-place finisher from the previous Vuelta a España was able to continue quickly. On the descent, he was able to rejoin the rest of the favorites, but Harper wasn’t so lucky. He crashed not long after in exactly the same turn. He was standing by the side of the road in a lot of pain. He was able to continue and finished the stage, but in a lot of pain. “He took a much worse fall than Tom,” Bogaerts said.

The Australian climber crossed the finish line 32 minutes behind winner Tadej Pogacar, but a day later his team announced the bad news in a press statement. "Chris Harper has sustained a serious injury to the thumb of his left hand. He underwent surgery last night and, unfortunately, due to the severity of the injury, will be unable to start today’s stage. He will now undergo further specialist examinations in Zurich."

The following day, Harper posted a message on Instagram showing that he had lost a piece of his thumb. "It’s always a bummer to have to pull out of a cycling race, but it’s especially painful to have to miss the biggest race of them all. Thanks to the team for their support, and I’m hoping for a speedy recovery so I can get back to racing in the second half of the season. On a positive note: I think I’m now 10 grams lighter,’ he says with a wink.