Thibaut Pinot had a day to forget in the Tour De France on Saturday after being whacked in the face by a soigneur as he tried to charge through the peloton.
With about 40 kilometres to go on the eighth stage in Lausanne, the Frenchman was derailed by a crash. He recovered quickly though, and despite finding himself at the back of the peloton, began his attempt to charge back through the field.
It was a short lived burst though, with the Groupama-FDJ rider soon forced to stop again in the feed zone following a bizarre accident which left his sunglasses in tatters. As Pinot, 32, moved to the right of the road his progress was halted by a Trek-Segafredo assistant.
The soigner reached across the rider as he held out a bag, and inadvertently struck him right in the face. Live on Eurosport, commentators watched on in disbelief, with one saying: "That is not Thibaut's fault."
His co-commentator added: "He's caught about five kilo of feedback straight in the face." Pinaut did soon get going again, but the setback undid any recovery he'd made since crashing.
“I was in the heat of the action and took a fist to my face,” he told velonews. "It happened right in front of me, I couldn’t avoid it. There are no real marks, but I had to chase hard to get back into the bunch. It was really a bad day from start to finish.”
Pinaut was once dubbed a future start of the sport when he finished third on the iconic tour back in 2014, but his 2022 campaign has thus far been a frustrating one. He tested positive for Covid-19 eight days before the Tour began, throwing his preparation into disarray.
And on his home stage, the La Super Planche des Belles Filles, he failed to impress, only managing 31st place. He's currently sitting 10:09 behind overall leader Tadej Pogacar.
It was Belgium's Wout van Aert who sprinted to his second stage victory of this year's Tour in Lausanne as Slovenia's Pogacar extended his overall lead. Jumbo-Visma's Van Aert hung on up a category three climb to the finish to edge out Australia's Michael Matthews.
Pogacar finished third to extend his yellow jersey lead to 39 seconds. Meanwhile, British trio Tom Pidcock, Geraint Thomas and Adam Yates all finished in the leading group of riders.
2018 winner Thomas currently lies 74 seconds off the lead, with Yates just eight seconds further back. Sunday sees the race travel back into France on a 192.9km route from Aigle to Chatel Les Portes du Soleil.
Pogcar, 23, is gunning for a third straight Tour win in a row. He'd become the first cyclist to achieve that feat since Chris Froome, who with Team Sky in 2015, 2016, and 2017.
