While the television cameras were focussed on the fight for the first maillot jaune of the 2026 Tour de France, there was plenty of drama out of the spotlight as two teams suffered crashes during the stage 1 team time trial in Barcelona.
Fortunately all of the riders finished, but XDS Astana saw three riders hit the deck after running over a storm drain cover midway through the 19.6km stage.
"No fractures or serious injuries for our riders, but Nicolas Vinokourov, Harold Tejada , and Simone Velasco did sustain abrasions and various bruises,” the team reported.
Velasco was the last-placed rider on the stage, nearly six minutes slower than Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), who claimed the race lead. Nicolya Vinokourov, blood seeping out of wounds on his knee, finished 4:54 down, and Tejada was able to get up quickly to finish 2:46 down.
XDS Astana finished last of the 23 teams, 2:18 behind Visma-Lease a Bike, with Sergio Higuita setting their time for the stage as their quickest rider.
The Kazakh team weren't the only ones to suffer a fall: Cofidis had their GC leader Guillaume Martin fall along with Clément Berthet, but both riders finished the stage 3:34 down with scrapes and bruises.
🇪🇸 🇫🇷 VIDEO: @LeTour The story of our day… Great preparation, big hopes, and then a crash that changed everything.Not the way we wanted to start the Tour de France, but we’ll keep fighting! 💪#XDSAstanaTeam #TDF2026🎥 A.S.O. / XDS Astana Team pic.twitter.com/npxx3k3L8aJuly 4, 2026
