Leading contender Primoz Roglic has withdrawn from the Tour de France before the start of stage 13, the day after being involved in a crash, his team said on Friday.
Roglic dropped to sixth place in the overall standings after suffering a crash on Thursday's stage 12 and ending it with a grazed and bloodied shoulder.
The 34-year-old Slovenian from the Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe team is now likely to turn his focus to the Vuelta a Espana, which begins on August 17.
"Primoz Roglic underwent careful examination by our medical team after yesterday's stage and again this morning," the outfit said on social media.
"The decision has been taken that he will not start today, to focus on upcoming goals.
"We wish you a speedy recovery Primoz," they added.
No Olympic defence
Three-time Vuelta winner and last year's Giro d'Italia champion was among a quartet of favourites for the Tour.
Roglic was joined by compatriot Tadej Pogacar, the winner in 2020 and 2021, defending champion Jonas Vingegaard and Belgian Remco Evenepoel as the main pretenders for the yellow jersey.
Before crashing on Thursday's flat ride, Roglic trailed overall leader Pogacar by 2min 15sec.
At the end of the stage he was 4min 42sec behind Pogacar and his hopes of claiming a first Tour de France title were in doubt.
"I heard the crash but didn't look round. I was shocked by the bad news," Pogacar said on Thursday.
"I'm really disappointed for him. It really sucks," the 25-year-old added.
Roglic finished fourth on the Tour de France in 2018 and second two years later.
Former ski jumper Roglic had already stated he would not defend his Olympic time trial gold medal at this summer's Paris Games.
Friday's 165.3km stage between Agen and Pau in southwest France is a flat ride before the weekend's mountainous stages in the Pyrenees.
Pogacar leads the race with former world champion Evenepoel 1min 06sec behind in second place and Dane Vingegaard third, 1min 14sec further back.
The Tour ends in Nice on July 21 because of preparations in Paris for the Olympics.
AFP