Former Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas was involved in a crash during the third stage of the three-week race.

The Ineos-Grenadiers leader fell off his bike with about 145 kilometres left in Monday’s third stage in the Brittany region.

Thomas remained on the ground for a while and looked like he would retire but ultimately went back on his bike.

Tour organisers said the peloton was riding at 43 km/h when the crash took place.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @GeraintThomas86 has crashed and looks in significant difficulty but he has set off again. 💪

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Geraint Thomas est impliqué dans une chute, il tente de rejoindre le peloton. 💪#TDF2021 pic.twitter.com/E1Nv9P5ftj

— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) June 28, 2021

Robert Gesink, a teammate of last-year’s runner-up Primoz Roglic, also fell and was forced to abandon.

Thomas, the 2018 champion, struggled at the back of the race afterwards.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @GeraintThomas86 returned to the peloton with the help of 3 @INEOSGrenadiers teammates.
They averaged 49.6km/h between km 45 and 55.
Peloton did 44.0km/h over the same stretch.#TDF2021 #TDFdata

— letourdata (@letourdata) June 28, 2021

His teammate Luke Rowe waited for him and the Welsh pair lagged 2 minutes and 30 seconds behind the peloton.

Thomas was 20th overall before the start of the stage, 41 seconds behind race leader Mathieu van der Poel.