Visma's British climber forced to withdraw from the Vuelta after being caught in Pogačar's crash

Ben Tulett will not start Stage 12 of the Vuelta a España. The British rider from Visma | Lease a Bike was involved in the crash that ended Tadej Pogačar's Vuelta on day 8. Although Tulett was also badly shaken up, he continued through three more stages and Monday’s rest day to see if he would feel better. That turned out not to be the case.

"Unfortunately, Ben will no longer be starting Stage 12 due to ongoing issues following his crash a few days ago," Visma | Lease a Bike wrote in a brief statement on Thursday morning. Tulett finished stages 9, 10, and 11 almost exclusively among the very last riders in the results. There was no point in continuing.

A major disappointment for Tulett, who had set his sights on the Tour of Spain. He was the designated team leader, though he suffered significant time losses as early as the first week. In Stage 8, Tulett took a hard fall when Pogacar hit a rock to his left, causing him to swerve to the right and fly over his handlebars.

Although all eyes were on Pogačar, Tulett also remained lying on the road after the crash and showed no signs of getting up anytime soon. With scrapes all over his body, he was clearly battered, but he did finish the stage and did the same in Stage 9. The rest day brought little relief, as evidenced by his results at the back of the pack in Stages 10 and 11.

For Visma | Lease a Bike, any hopes of a general classification finish had already been dashed, because in addition to Tulett, Jorgen Nordhagen also lacked the legs to keep up with the best. With Wout van Aert in the running for the green jersey and Matthew Brennan already with three stage wins under his belt, the yellow-and-black team still has plenty of other goals to pursue in this race.