Haig escapes injury in crash, finishes fourth on day one of Tour de France

The former Bendigo-based rider overcame a crash to finish fourth on day one, while several of the leading general classification contenders, including fellow Aussie Richie Porte, lost valuable time and will find it mighty hard to work their way back inside the top 10.

Haig was one of several riders to fall 43km from the finish in a crash caused by a fan who was holding a large sign on the roadside.

Tony Martin clipped the sign and he fell, causing a domino effect behind him.

Haig, riding for Team Bahrain Victorious, managed to get back on his bike and caught the peloton.

Another crash inside the final 10km skittled the hopes of several riders, but Haig powered on to finish fourth on the stage - just eight seconds behind winner Julian Alaphilippe.

"We went into the stage with the hope that Sonny (Colbrelli) could fight for the stage win,'' Haig told bahraincyclingteam.com after the stage.

"But during the stage, it was quite fast and technical and two hard crashes. One with around 40 kilometres to go at the top of a climb, and both Sonny and I got caught up in this crash, and it took us quite a long time to chase back to the peloton.

"Then there was another big crash with seven kilometres to go, where a few of the team got caught out there.

"Myself, Sonny and Matej (Mohoric) had quite a good positioning coming into the final climb and left-hand corner, and I could see after a kilometre of the climb Sonny was suffering quite a bit.

"It was more of the climbing style riders doing well, and I managed to just follow some wheels and stay up there as much as possible, and to come fourth was really nice."

1. Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck - Quick-Step, in 4:39.05

2. Michael Matthews (Aus) Team BikeExchange, plus eight seconds

3. Primo Rogli (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma

4. Jack Haig (Aus) Bahrain Victorious

5. Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Bora-Hansgrohe

6. Tadej Pogaar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates

7. David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ

8. Sergio Higuita (Col) EF Education-Nippo

9. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo

10. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos Grenadier, all same time

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