João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) abandoned the Tour de France during stage 9 on Sunday, in a huge hit to overall leader Tadej Pogačar 's climbing support. Almeida's team confirmed on social media that he could not continue due to injuries suffered in a high-speed crash on stage 7, after struggling and being dropped from the peloton.

Ahead of the looming mountain tests that will determine the winner of this year’s race, Tadej Pogačar has become visibly irritated with Visma’s tactics in recent days, which seemed designed to put the Slovenian back into yellow, even though he might have preferred someone else to have it on the flatter transition days south.