Racing the Tour de France with a broken shoulder - TotalEnergies pull Jeannière out of race ahead of time-trial

Professional cyclists are often described to as warriors, for many reasons - but one of them being their ability to endure injuries. Whilst often there is the overlying concern that they should not continue races after difficult crashes, often that still happens. After his high-speed crash on the third stage of the Tour de France, TotalEnergies' Emilien JeannIère raced the entire stage 4 with a fractured shoulder, before he was pulled out from the race today.

Stage 3 was heavily marked by the crashes, firstly involving Jasper Philipsen who had to abandoned the race; in a second instance one that involved Remco Evenepoel and Jordi Meeus; and later on one fall in the very final meters of the stage right before the start of the mass sprint.

The technical finale in Dunkerque saw a crash take down the likes of Cees Bol, Bryan Coquard, Paul Penhoët and Jeannière. The sprinter could not avoid the fall in front of him and collided with the barriers at high speed - a fall that looked terrifying on TV, but even more on spectator footage as shown in the video below.

Amazingly, the French team's rider crossed the line a few minutes later and raced the entire stage 4. He was a DNS this morning at the Tour as further examinations showed he had fractured a scapula during the fall, besides the facial injuries and road rash in several areas of the body.

On social media, the team wrote this morning: "The Team regretfully announces the withdrawal of its Vendée sprinter, Émilien Jeannière. Following a particularly violent crash in the final stages of the third stage of the Tour de France, our rider is forced to withdraw from the Tour de France. Further medical examinations this morning revealed a fractured left scapula. This injury prematurely ends Émilien's first participation in the world's greatest cycling race. The entire team wishes him a speedy recovery".