Antonio Pedrero is not a cyclist who fills pages with words. He communicates mostly with his eyes, bright and smiling, a quiet confidence that speaks louder than any sentence. A few months ago he was the runner seen at the edge of the track, sharing a dream born in childhood: to ride the Tour de France, the race every rider longs to conquer at least once. The thought of reaching Paris, feeling the chill of the Champs-Élysées, thrilled him as much as the long road itself.
Yet that dream remains out of reach. Pedrero, a native of Terrassa, has a father named Jose, a modest member of the peloton who fought hard for a spot in the Vuelta. The dream would not come true because yesterday, after crossing the streets of Annemasse while the town eased into a calm pace, Pedrero suffered a brutal fall just 5.5 kilometers from the stage finish. The race, which began with the usual fervor in a French town proud to host the Tour, paused abruptly in the wake of the accident.
For almost twenty minutes the race stopped. Christian Prudhomme ordered the riders to halt. While the crowd recovered breath and water, the mechanics rushed to assist the fallen and the medical team moved in. Pedrero left the crash with three broken ribs and his bike, either repaired or swapped for a replacement, lay nearby. The fall dashed his Giro-like debut on the Tour and forced him into an ambulance, ending any future plans for Paris that day. The Pyrenees, Andorra, and the hours of training in the mountains now seemed a distant echo of a dream that would have to wait for another year, another chance to close his first Grande Boucle in extraordinary fashion.
fled with Bilbao
On Tuesday Pedrero watched Pello Bilbao seize a daring escape, only to lose ground in the final sprint in Issoire, finishing sixth after exhausting the last 500 meters. The day unfolded with fourteen Spaniards in the break, and only ten remained as the group narrowed, including Catalan, Vizcaya, and a single rider, Marc Soleras, serving as a lieutenant to Tadej Pogacar. A notable detail emerged as the race heated up—the Slovenian team’s entourage dipped from the UAE car to fetch drinks, not to refresh their leader but to prepare his water and keep him cool. It was a reminder of the day’s relentless pace and the strange rituals that emerge in the heat of a Grand Tour.
Enric Mas starts training
Pedrero, resting in Andorra among the Pyrenean passes, chose a different base this season, far from the valleys that defined his usual routes. Injury struck again when he suffered a fall that compelled an early exit from the Tour on Thursday. Early X-rays offered little cause for concern, with teams privately acknowledging the ambitious hope of quick recovery and a return to training in days, weighing the possibility of contesting the Vuelta. His teammate Luisle Sanchez, the second Spaniard with a broken collarbone, also retired, highlighting how fragile a Grand Tour can be for a core group of rivals and teammates alike.
Pedrero made the journey from Palma to Barcelona this Saturday, with Movistar facing a sudden leadership vacuum as Pedrero’s setback sidelined him from crucial general classification battles. The team’s plan shifted, and the rider’s absence loomed large as another chapter closed on a Tour that would not see him contend for the podium. Even so, the focus remained clear: the road ahead still held opportunities for recovery and renewed purpose, with Mas moving forward and the team looking toward a future race season where Pedrero could push toward the horizon once more.
In short, the Tour’s drama is never only about the finish lines. It is about the injuries, the comebacks, the small victories in the training camp, and the stubborn belief that dreams can be reshaped and pursued again. Pedrero’s story reflects the wider arc of a sport built on resilience and the pursuit of perfection in a calendar that never ceases to test the limits of endurance and willpower.
Attribution: This summary compiles event details reported by multiple outlets covering the Tour de France seasons and rider updates. (Sources: General Tour de France coverage and rider bios.)