Cycling fans held their breath across the world as rainbow jersey Tadej Pogačar crashed in the final kilometres of Stage 11 of the Tour de France on Wednesday. As it turns out, Pogi could have been much worse off.

“I panicked when I saw the curb coming closer—I thought my head was going to smash into it,” he told French outlet RMC Sport afterwards. “But luckily my skin is tough and it stopped me before I hit the curb.”

The 11th Tour de France stage, following the first rest day, saw frenetic action in its front half, with Mathieu van der Poel crossing swords with Wout van Aert, a breakaway surviving to claim the victory, and Pogačar suffering a hard crash late.

Jonas Abrahamsen outsprinted breakmate Mauro Schmid in Toulouse for the day’s flowers—his and Uno-X’s first Tour win. Irishman Ben Healy kept his maillot jaune for another day.

“I’m okay. I’m a bit sore, but we made it through, so I’m alright,” he said after.

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I am terribly sorry for what happend to @TamauPogi. I was trying to follow a move and I can see that I was to close. I tought everyone would move to the right, but I made a mistake and would like to say sorry again. I hope he is as good as he can be after a crash like that.

— Tobias Johannessen (@TobiasJohannes1) July 16, 2025

In a sportspersonlike gesture, his rivals didn’t push the pace when they heard the defending champion had hit the deck.

“It was a bit of a chaotic day from start to finish, but I want to thank the rest of the group for waiting for me after the crash. The stage was nearly over, but they could’ve taken time from me. Maybe not much, but I definitely would’ve had to dip into my reserves to get back. So I want to thank the guys at the front for their support.”

As for what caused the crash, Pogačar said they had just come off the descent of the final climb and everyone was going at their limit.

“Matteo Jorgenson and Jonas Vingegaard attacked and pushed everyone to the limit,” he said. “Then they saw Jhonny Narváez was there, and he did a great job controlling the group.”

Pogačar explained that in that sort of stage, there were lots of attacks with riders reacting.

“Unfortunately, a rider followed an attack from left to right. He didn’t see me and clipped my front wheel,” he added. The Norwegian was obviously quite contrite about the crash. He had also apparently been receiving lots of nasty messages, despite it clearly not being his fault. The rainbow jersey took to Twitter on Wednesday to clear the air.

See you tomorrow 🫡 pic.twitter.com/gDkI7wthQt

— Tim Wellens (@Tim_Wellens) July 16, 2025

That rider was Norwegian Tobias Halland Johannessen of Uno-X Mobility, who was trying to follow a move and veered right. It appeared that Pogačar may have been overlapping his wheel and then went down. From the footage, it did not appear that Johannessen was intentionally trying to chop him—despite what some on Cycling Twitter™ claimed.

Thankfully, it seems the Team UAE Emirates leader is fine and will live to fight another day. The next day of racing is Stage 12, from Auch to the famous Hautacam, covering a total of 180.6 km.