After a series of grueling races, including the cobblestones of Roubaix on stage 5 of the Tour de France, stage 7, a transit stage from the Jura mountains to Lausanne, Switzerland, was not a candidate for the most exhausting day of racing to date.

However, four more riders left the race on Saturday, bringing the total number of riders to 168. In the morning, both UAE Team Emirates and AG2R Citroen announced that Vegard Stake Rengen and Geoffrey Bouchard had withdrawn due to positive tests for COVID-19.

They were then joined on the Tour's retirements list by debutants Kevin Vermaquet (Team DSM) and Gianni Moscon (Astana Kazakstan).

The American climber was involved in a pile-up in the pack in the opening 10 km of the 186 km stage. The crash split the peloton, and the yellow jersey of Tadei Pogachar was also knocked to the deck, albeit lightly.

Vermaquet's team announced his departure on social media, stating that they would provide an update later. As it turned out, the crash that ended Vermaquet's Tour debut was a fracture of the left collarbone. According to Anco Bollens, Team DSM's physician, the fracture will likely require surgery, but the other injuries are "fortunately superficial."

"I am disappointed to end the Tour de France like this," said Bollens. 'I have no words. I really wanted to continue, but unfortunately I couldn't. I really enjoyed the opening week with everyone. My legs felt great and the atmosphere of the race was fantastic, so I'm bringing back some great memories.

As the rest of the peloton entered the last 70 km of the stage, Astana Kazakstan announced that Gianni Moscon had dropped out of the race.

Moscon had struggled in recent days, losing several minutes even on cobbled stages, which are his forte. The race ended with him in 170th place overall, just two places up from last place.

"Unfortunately, Gianni Moscon had to retire from today's race," Astana announced on social media. He is still feeling the consequences of the so-called "long-COVID-19" (post-COVID fatigue).

Moscon, who joined Astana this year from Ineos Grenadiers, contracted COVID-19 at the start of the season and missed three weeks of training as a result. Moscon ran a few races in the spring classic, but called his condition "sub-zero" and ended the race early.

Stake Laengen, Bouchard, Vermaerke, and Moscon were Alex Kirsch (Trek-Segafredo), Daniel Oss (TotalEnergies), Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious), Michael Gogl (Alpecin-Deceuninck), among others, left the race.