Just a few days ago, the drivers in the yellow and black dress were feared in the field as "killer wasps".

Because they sent an eminently strong swarm of professionals to this Tour de France who seemed to be able to stab on all terrains.

And now, the tour hasn't been on a week yet, are you just swaying through the peloton?

Primoz Roglic labeled a photo of himself that he shared on social networks with “the mummy”.

The captain of the Jumbo-Visma team can be seen on it, as he is currently being prepared for the stages by the team doctor, or better said: being wrapped up.

Among all the bandages and plasters that Roglic's shoulder, elbow, hip and lower leg pull, virtually only the thumb that was stretched out for the photo peeps out unharmed.

Fellow sufferers in black and yellow

Roglic is the symbol of how hard the team was hit by falls in this first week of racing.

The predicted dominators of this tour have become fellow sufferers in black and yellow.

Whether they can recover from the beating of that first week seems uncertain.

“Once again we don't want to have our yellow jersey taken off,” Tony Martin confidently told the FAZ shortly before the Grand Départ in Brittany. The sting from last year is still deep when the team that was certain to win lost everything to Tadej Pogacar on the penultimate day after three weeks at the top of the peloton and with Roglic for a long time in pole position in the time trial.

At the age of 36, the experienced German racing driver Martin has a helper and mentor role in the Dutch team.

His word carries weight, they rely on his guidance in the race.

"We have learned from 2020 that we have to remain tactically variable and not just drive from the front like in the previous year," said Martin.

In this way, Jumbo-Visma drove Pogacar, who had come with a significantly weaker team, into the yellow jersey, because he only had to hang on to the black and yellow express.

Now the disaster for the team has taken its course when driving from the front.

It was Martin who collided in the front row in the peloton with the cardboard sign of a (meanwhile identified) spectator, hit the asphalt hard and triggered a mass fall.

Then on Monday, when the field experienced a real cascade of falls on the way to Pontivy, top favorite Roglic also went down. Teammate Steven Kruijswijk, a top helper who was third on the tour podium in Paris in 2019, fell with him. At this point the important mountain helper Robert Gesink had already retired from the race due to injuries from a fall. Martin spoke upset about the fact that the team bus looked like "a hospital". Which also has a significant psychological dimension for the self-image as a winning team.

Wednesday's time trial, actually a specialty of Roglic and originally an important part of the plan to get him close to the yellow jersey, was not another low blow given the circumstances. But the ambitions on compatriot Pogacar have been damaged. "I feel, well, shit," said Roglic. “I can still feel the wounds massively. But it's getting better. ”Has the sting already pulled the“ killer wasps ”? Especially since the all-purpose weapon, the Belgian champion Wout van Aert, incapacitated by appendicitis in early summer, clearly failed with his attack on yellow in the time trial. “As long as we're in the race we'll fight,” said Roglic.

Jumbo-Visma, which once emerged from the Rabobank team, which was afflicted with various doping misconduct, has long had the budget, the equipment and the depth in the squad to provide a professional formation that can dictate a tour of France to its tempo. The team follows a strictly scientific approach in training, nutrition - the controversial but not prohibited ketone preparations are also used - right through to clothing. The team leadership does not believe in letting the drivers compete internally for the tour starting positions until shortly before, but relies on early determination and joint preparation. Team spirit should arise and not be prescribed.

When the peloton reaches the Alps at the weekend, will new alliances be formed?

An unusual collaboration between the top teams Jumbo-Visma and Ineos in order to put the escaped Pogacar under pressure?

The British team is also badly plucked with the two captains Geraint Thomas and Richard Carapaz, who are as far behind defending champion Pogacar as Roglic.

But there is at least one bright spot among the black and yellow.

Noble helper Jonas Vingegaard moved up to third after the time trial, although after Roglic's fall on Monday he waited just under a minute for his captain to escort him to the finish.

The 24-year-old Dane has at least brought himself into play as a captain alternative for his battered team.