Chris Froome strengthened his grip on the yellow jersey in the most freakish circumstances after stage 12 of the Tour de France ended in chaos on the slopes of Mont Ventoux.
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Dutchman Mollema, of Trek-Segafredo, is a further nine seconds adrift of Yates, with Movistar’s Quintana another five seconds off the pace.
In the provisionary Tour de France GC classification standings, Adam Yates was the leader while Quintana gained time over Froome.
He said: “I’m not whinging because it’s me but I don’t think it’s right that motorbike and crowds can make the race turn out like this”. The Tour de France, littered as it is with team support cars and jackasses in devil costumes, adds a bunch of obstacles to the mix.
“We were 23 seconds ahead, it’s not fair.it can’t stand, surely the jury has to look at it and use a bit of discretion”.
But what the organizers failed to do was extend the barricades in the final kilometers of the race.
The two-time Tour victor eventually got a replacement bike and crossed the line way behind Mollema and Porte in a time that would have handed the yellow jersey to young Briton Adam Yates. I didn’t have a spare bike, I knew the cars were stuck behind all the other riders, I was just left to try and get up the climb as best I could. “Around the last kilometre a motorbike braked hard”, explained Froome on French TV after being presented with the yellow jersey.
I know many have watched the video replay of the crash over and over again.
The motorbikes preceding them could find no way through the crowds, however, and ground to a halt, Porte crashing into the back of one, Froome and Mollema coming down behind him. Froome or Richie Porte or Bauke Mollema might quite easily have broken a leg, or an arm, or a collarbone. “It’s got nothing to do with sport”, the Frenchman said.
With the wind at 125 kph (nearly 80 mph) on top of the “Giant of Provence”, organizers moved the finish line six kilometers (3½miles) down the road to the Chalet Reynard.
It was still a grueling 10-kilometer (6-mile) climb featuring several sections with gradients exceeding 10 percent.
Gaviria finished the 240km third stage in Zawiercie ahead of Italy’s Elia Viviani and Australia’s Caleb Ewan, in a repeat of yesterday’s top three, which sees him maintain his race lead.
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Ventoux was also the site of an epic contest between Lance Armstrong and Marco Pantani in 2000, and where British rider Tom Simpson died in 1967 from a combination of amphetamines and alcohol. Yeah, OK, now I get the same time as Mollema on the stage. but I also crashed, and now I’m sore on the eve of such a crucial stage – Friday’s Stage 13, a 37.5-kilometre time trial from Bourg Saint Andeol to La Caverne du Pont d’Arc.
