Primoz Roglic lost more than two minutes to his rival Tour de France contenders after crashing near the finish where Biniam Girmay won a third stage on Thursday.
Roglic hit the tarmac with some 12 kilometers left after a rider in front of him hit road furniture and lost control of his bike. Roglic could not avoid the crash and went down with several others.
It was the second accident in 24 hours for Roglic, a four-time Grand Tour champion. He got back on his bike but struggled at the back and was helped to the stage finish by his Bora-Hansgrohe teammates.
He crossed 2 minutes, 27 seconds after the winner according to provisional results and dropped to sixth place overall.
Girmay, who became the first Black rider to ever win a Tour stage this month, edged Wout van Aert and Arnaud Démare to extend his lead at the top of the rankings for the best sprinter’s green jersey.
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Two-time Tour champion Tadej Pogacar kept the yellow jersey.
Pogacar has a lead of 1:06 over Remco Evenepoel, with two-time defending champion Jonas Vingegaard in third place, 1:14 off the pace.
The crash disturbed preparations for the final sprint, with Matthieu Van der Poel also missing from the main group and unable to lead out teammate Jasper Philipsen.
Stage 12 took riders on a 204-kilometer (126-mile) route from Aurillac to Villeneuve-sur-Lot in southwestern France without major difficulty.
There was an early breakaway but Jonas Abrahamsen, Quentin Pacher and Valentin Madouas were caught after 162 kilometers.
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