It was meant to be a quiet day before the Tour de France hits the high mountains -- yet it turned into anything but as leader Tadej Pogacar crashed and Australian team Jayco AlUla missed out agonisingly on victory as a protester tried to disrupt the sprint finale.
Pogacar took a heavy tumble with four kilometres left of the dramatic 11th stage on Wednesday, and was grateful Tour honour was upheld when, up ahead, the peloton slowed, allowing the under-pressure champion, who'd already lost about 20 seconds, to rejoin.
Meanwhile, a thrilling duel between Norway's Jonas Abrahamsen and Jayco's Swiss champion Mauro Schmid was nearly compromised by the protester, in a T-shirt reading "Israel out of the Tour" and waving a Palestinian scarf, who burst on the course 50m from the line.
