Primoz Roglic: 2020 runner-up abandons Tour de France ahead of stage nine
Primoz Roglic, last year's runner-up, suffered multiple bruises when he crashed in stage three; Roglic: "I was in a lot of pain. It was just too much for my body and I cannot race. I'm disappointed but I have to accept it. It's the right decision"
Last Updated: 04/07/21 11:03am
Primoz Roglic has abandoned the Tour de France ahead of stage nine as one of the pre-race favourites counts the cost of crashes in the opening three days.
Roglic, last year's runner-up, suffered multiple bruises when he crashed in stage three.
A heavily bandaged Roglic finished in a group 35 minutes down on Saturday's stage into Le Grand-Bornand and the Slovenian will now try to recover ahead of the Olympics later this month.
"We took the decision altogether with the team, it doesn't make sense to continue the way it was going at the end," the Jumbo-Visma rider said.
"Now we'll definitely try to recover and focus on new goals."
The two-time Vuelta champion had already been dropped by the overall contenders in the seventh stage on Friday.
He added: "I was going through the days but it wasn't taking anywhere really.
"I was in a lot of pain. It was just too much for my body and I cannot race. I'm disappointed but I have to accept it. It's the right decision."
