Ben Healy will wear the yellow jersey at the Tour de France again on Thursday after safely defending his lead on an incident-packed Stage 11.
Defending champion Tadej Pogacar suffered a 5km from the end, moments before a protester disrupted the sprint finish where Norway's Jonas Abrahamsen claimed his first Tour stage victory.
Healy was in the peloton, crossing the line safely three minutes later over three minutes after a lumpy and relatively short 156.8km loop that started and began in Toulouse.
Pogacar went down after touching wheels with another rider but quickly remounted and the peloton eased off to allow the overall race favourite to rejoin.
Healy explained that he had a brief chat with two-time Tour champion Jonas Vingegaard, seen as Pogacar's main rival for the title, and both agreed they should wait for the Slovenian.
"Thanks to the peloton in front, they actually waited, obviously the race was more or less over back there, but still, they could have taken time," Pogacar said.
"Really big respect to everybody in front. Thanks for your support, guys."
Healy, the fourth Irish cyclist to wear the yellow jersey retains his 29-second lead with no difference from yesterday for the top 10 in the general classification.
"It was pretty stressful," Healy said afterwards. "The team did a super job, even when I missed a split early on. From then on we were on the ball the whole day.
"There were a few attacks near the end, but I was able to stay with the group. I’m really happy that I have managed to hold on to yellow for another day."
As the stage reached its dramatic conclusion, a protester wearing a T-shirt reading "Israel out of the Tour" and waving a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf ran onto the final straight, just 50 metres from the line.
He was swiftly tackled by a security officer as Abrahamsen edged out Swiss national champion Mauro Schmid in a two-man sprint for the win.
Stage 12 on Thursday will bring the Tour’s first high-mountain showdown with a summit finish on the legendary Hautacam.
Having produced a typically aggressive display last Thursday to claim his first Tour de France stage win, Healy again took the initiative on Monday to finish third on the Bastille Day stage and sensationally wrest the GC lead from Pogacar.
All eyes will be on Pogacar following today's crash, with Healy hoping to extend his time in possession of the le Maillot Jaune.
"I’m optimistic," he said. "I think it’s going to be a pretty hard fight to hold on to yellow, but I’m going to fight right until the end. Hopefully I’ll have some super legs tomorrow."
