The Tour champion and race leader was scheduled to compete in the race’s first time trial after organisers said the hilly 37.5km leg from Bourg Saint Andéol to La Caverne du Pont d’Arch in the Ardeche region will go ahead despite the attack.
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At least 84 people were killed in Nice Thursday night when an apparent lone driver of a truck opened fire on a crowd and fatally mowed down people celebrating Bastille Day, the French national holiday.
The driver of the truck was shot dead after barrelling two kilometres (1.3 miles) through the crowd on the palm-lined Promenade des Anglais, sending hundreds fleeing in terror and leaving the area strewn with bodies.
The identity papers of a 31-year-old resident of Nice who was born in Tunisia were found inside. Police said they also found fake guns and fake grenades inside the truck, according to CNN.
Russia knows all too well the pain and grief caused by terrorism and feels for the loss of the French people from the Nice terrorist attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address.
US-led airstrikes, including by French warplanes, are taking a particularly heavy toll there.
Noting that the attack occurred on Bastille Day, Obama praised “the extraordinary resilience and democratic values that have made France an inspiration to the entire world”.
A large number of people were present at the nighttime celebrations, which included fireworks on the city’s famous promenade.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the government is declaring three days of national mourning after the attack in Nice that left at least 84 people dead. They were there on vacation with my two other cousins and aunt celebrating a birthday.
French President Francois Hollande called it a terrorist attack, announcing that the state of emergency will be extended for three months. No terrorist organisation has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Paris prosecutor’s office is leading the investigation.
He says the U.S.is providing assistance to those affected by the attack, while the embassy tries to account for all Americans in the Mediterranean city.
“Nothing will make us yield in our will to fight terrorism”.
Hollande and Valls arrived in Nice on Friday after a meeting of the Security and Defense Council.
The prime minister said an extension to the state of emergency that has been in place since November’s attacks in Paris killed 130 would be discussed by the Cabinet and in parliament next week. The attack would “strengthen our efforts in Syria and Iraq against those who are attacking us on our very soil”, he added.
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As France woke up to another terror outrage, he said there is a unusual atmosphere in the country.
