– Froome, after staying safe to protect his time advantage over his main Tour rivals: Alberto Contador of Spain, Vincenzo Nibali of Italy and Nairo Quintana of Colombia. Bonnet, a rider for team FDJ, was conscious when he was taken away by medical staff on a stretcherOwing to Cancellara’s withdrawal; Christopher Froome took over the yellow jersey.
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September will also see the Tour of Britain, a ride which will visit a few different parts of England, Scotland and Wales.
Cavendish will have another chance in Thursday’s 191.5km sixth stage from Abbeville to Le Harve, which is anticipated to end in a bunch sprint, but questions will continue to be asked over whether he will return to the force who won 20 stages in four Tours. Easily the best of the four on cobbles, he attacked three times on the 13.3km of pavé, but each time was shut down by his rivals’ teams and consequently failed to make the time gains he had been hoping for.
At 223.5-kilometer, it’s also the longest of the race this year and comes after two days of frenetic racing in the Netherlands and Belgium.
They rolled over the first cobbles safely.
“I thought about giving it a go late on, but it all came back together when [rival team] Tinkoff-Saxo closed it behind us”.
“It wasn’t about showing how strong I am on the cobbles, it was all about staying out of trouble”.
Brailsford said: “It’s nice to get your nose in front, (but) it’s a bit like scoring a goal in football and you’re really vulnerable for the five minutes afterwards”.
Cavendish was favourite for the sprint to Zeeland last Sunday, but floundered in the finishing straight, blaming team-mate Mark Renshaw for a premature sprint after Greipel won.
Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas’s analysis of all 21 stages. Normally he’d just grab his spare bike from his team’s auto, but the auto was stuck in traffic behind the select group of about 35 seclect riders he was racing with.
After Froome was forced to ride on the sidewalk when Katusha rider Jacopo Guarnieri squeezed him off the side of the road, Nibali then nearly bumped into Frenchman Tony Gallopin as the defending champion moved to the front before launching another attack with 26 kilometers remaining.
Ironically, he did not actually cross the finish line with all of his own equipment, after a mechanical to his bike caused teammate Matteo Trentin to switch with the German veteran to help him complete the stage.
But as Sky pointed out, Martin is considered no threat long-term, while Froome is now perfectly poised for the mountain stages in the second and third week.
“So far I am happy with the way things have gone”.
The 30-year-old took a daring solo victory on Tuesday to wrench the jersey out of 2013 champion Chris Froome’s grasp. It cost French rider Thibaut Pinot valuable time after he sustained a puncture and waited for a tire change.
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It means Froome remains 36 seconds ahead of Contador in the general classification, with Nibali still 1min 38sec back and Quintana 1min 56sec down. It was particularly for this stage. “It’s shaping up to be an incredible race”.
