{"id":674711,"date":"2026-07-05T08:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T08:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/674711\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T08:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T08:13:11","slug":"a-real-blow-groupama-fdj-united-already-a-climber-down-after-tour-de-france-team-time-trial-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/674711\/","title":{"rendered":"‘A real blow’ \u2013 Groupama-FDJ United already a climber down after Tour de France team time trial crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Groupama-FDJ United<\/a> may have delivered a solid start on the results sheet on stage 1 of the Tour de France<\/a>, with eighth on the stage and Romain Gr\u00e9goire sitting 12th overall, but they also suffered a loss as the impact of a crash in the team time trial will leave them one rider down from Sunday.<\/p>\n

All was well through the first intermediate check, with the team clocking fifth position, but around halfway through the 19.6km time trial, Cl\u00e9ment Berthet and Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet crashed.<\/p>\n

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“Cl\u00e9ment lost his balance, Guillaume couldn’t avoid him, and Quentin’s [Pacher] chain came off, and he was split,” said coach Anthony Bouillod in a team statement. “We quickly found ourselves down to five riders.”<\/p>\n

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Despite that, the squad continued, not wanting to lose time for Romain Gr\u00e9goire<\/a>. The 23-year-old puncheur is, after all, well suited to trying his hand on the hilly stage 2, which, if the gaps are pulled out, could place him in a position to chase a chance to wear the yellow jersey.<\/p>\n

“It was a real blow,” said the 23-year-old Gr\u00e9goire. “In the heat of the moment, I didn’t even see that they had crashed. Since we had decided to save me for the finale, there were only four of them left to work.”<\/p>\n

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While the rest of the team continued to charge to the finish and Gr\u00e9goire finished it off with a strong final dash, both Martin-Guyonnet and Berthet<\/a> limped over the line around three minutes back.<\/p>\n

“We showed the commitment we wanted, and the result is pretty good considering the context,” said Bouillod. “On the other hand, Cl\u00e9ment and Guillaume’s crash is obviously a huge disappointment. We could have hoped for sixth place if we’d had them with us, but above all, there are the after-effects of that crash.”<\/p>\n

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The team confirmed that Berthet would not be able to start on Sunday’s stage, an early addition to the abandons list, but did not give further detail on his injuries. Stage 2<\/a> will take riders 182km from Tarragona to Barcelona, finishing with three ascents of the Montju\u00efc Castle in the final 30km.<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s 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.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Groupama-FDJ United may have delivered a solid start on the results sheet on stage 1 of the Tour…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-674711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}