Torstein Træen suffers heavy crash on Tourmalet descent, loses Tour de France yellow jersey

Torstein Træen’s second day in the Tour de France yellow jersey proved to be his last, with the Norwegian dropped on the ascent of the Col du Tourmalet and crashing on the descent.

The Uno-X Mobility rider, who took the overall lead with a huge margin over the main general classification contenders after infiltrating the stage 4 breakaway, hit the deck halfway down the long descent of the Tourmalet towards the end of Thursday’s stage 5.

Though not considered a legitimate GC rider, he had been expected to survive this stage given his near-eight-minute gap over Tadej Pogačar, and take the jersey well into the second week.

However, Træen had nearly conceded all of that advantage by the time he’d even started the ill-fated descent. Whether or not he can continue remains to be seen.

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!

“We have to see what X-ray shows,” the Norwegian said in the post-race interview. “For now, my head is hurting a bit, and then obviously my ribs are not super fine. So yeah, we just have to see.”

Træen was eventually able to remount and continue the stage, light-heartedly discussing the incident with his teammate in the valley, but his stint in yellow is now over.

“I was joking with Anders that we would sprint for it, so I don’t know if he would let me win or not,” he said [Johannessen beat him for 50th place on the stage]. “But at least we can still enjoy, even though it was not the best day.”

The world’s biggest bike race deserves world-class coverage. Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our unrivalled reporting of the 2026 Tour de France. From Barcelona through to Paris, our experienced team will bring you breaking news, expert insight, and in-depth coverage from every stage as the battle for the yellow jersey plays out. Plus, access the Cyclingnews app to follow the action on the go! Find out more.