After lifting the yellow jersey from the shoulders of Tadej Pogačar on stage four of the Tour de France, Torstein Træen was forced to return it rather sooner than many had predicted.
He was nursing a broken rib and a sore head on Thursday night after a crash on the descent of the Col du Tourmalet, which took place after a rampaging attack by Pogačar had already put him well in arrears. He finished the day 29:55 down on the Slovenian stage winner, his yellow jersey stint well and truly put to bed.
Nevertheless, he crossed the line with a smile on his face, perhaps because of the rousing welcome he was given by the still-waiting fans.
Speaking briefly to reporters afterwards, Træen said he wasn’t entirely sure whether he would continue the Tour de France.
“We have to see what the x-ray shows for now. My head is hurting a bit, and then obviously my ribs are not super fine, so we just have to see,” he said, his maillot jaune sporting tears and bloodstains. Those x-rays subsequently revealed a rib fracture, as well as injury to the right shoulder.
Asked about how he managed to survive the rest of the stage, which comprised the rest of the descent and the cat-two climb up to Gavarnie-Gèdre, he revealed that he and Anders Halland Andersen had joked about sprinting for the line.
“I was joking with Anders that we will sprint for it,” he said. “I don’t know if he would let me win or not, but at least we can still enjoy it, even though it was not the best day.”
The big mountains of stage six from Pau to Gavarnie-Gèdre were always going to prove a hurdle, but Træen probably hadn’t reckoned on crashing hard on the descent of the Tourmalet.
It was some time before the Norwegian Uno-X Mobility rider eased himself gingerly back into the saddle, after clipping wheels with Halland Johannessen in a hairpin, the bike flipping over and dumping him hard on the tarmac.
But he had already lost a lot of time and, crash or no crash, his tenure in yellow would have come to an end at Gavarnie-Gèdre.
Træen, who also wore the leader’s jersey in last year’s Vuelta a España, had taken the jersey on stage four in Foix after being part of a major breakaway that finished almost 13 minutes ahead of the peloton.
After that stage Pogačar said he could end up holding the lead for a long time. Perhaps the Slovenian decided he was missing it, or maybe he didn’t expect to beat Træen by so much. Either way, the jersey is back with a more familiar caretaker this evening.
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