Richie Porte (BMC Racing) has been forced to abandon the 2018 Tour de France with what looks like a collarbone injury. The rider, who came into the race as one of the favourites for the overall win, went down in a bunch crash fairly early in the day, about 147km from the end of Stage 9.
What's more, today's stage includes 15 sectors of cobbles, but the crash came long before the first.
Porte was seen sitting on the ground after many others involved in the crash were back on their bikes and riding away. A race doctor was soon with Porte and examining his collarbone.
An abandonment looked likely when the rider appeared noticeably upset, clearly knowing his race was over.
Porte's teammate, Greg Van Avermaet, is the current yellow jersey and a previous winner of Paris-Roubaix. Going into this stage there may have been a debate in the team as to how to approach a stage that wouldn't have suited Porte anyway.
That decision has been made for the team, in a way they wouldn't have wanted, but now a stage win with Van Averamet is a possibility and would be something of a consolation prize.
This could be Van Averamaet's last chance to retain yellow as the race heads into the mountains for Stage 10 on Tuesday, after the first race day.