On the attack in the Tour de France, the British rider was suddenly performing a somersault in midair after an inflatable arch marking the final kilometre collapsed and hit him during a freaky finale to Friday’s seventh stage.
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The stage victor, Steve Cummings of Great Britain, had already passed under the arch so was unaffected, as were the other frontrunners, but his fellow Briton Adam Yates, who was slightly ahead of the main peloton including last year’s victor Chris Froome, was not so lucky.
He started Saturday’s stage with a chance to take over the leader’s yellow jersey from Belgian Greg Van Avermaet, who was widely expected to lose it on the mountainous terrain despite holding a 5min 50sec advantage.
Chris Froome finished with his main rivals after an inflatable at the 1km to go mark collapsed on to the road.
Organisers said they are likely to take into account riders’ times at the 3km mark.
The pack passes a field with sunflowers during the seventh stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 162.5 kilometers (100.7 miles) with start in L’Isle-Jourdain and finish in Lac de Payolle, France, Friday, July 8, 2016.
There were chaotic and comical scenes toward the end of Stage 7 of the Tour de France on Friday when an inflatable arch collapsed as a group of riders neared the finish line.
Italian Vincenzo Nibali, the 2014 Tour champion, launched a counter-attack of three riders but Cummings proved too strong for them and rode away to win his second Tour stage in successive years.
“Of all my victories, I think it’s the best one”.
When the break crept up to nearly six minutes – giving Van Avermaet an 11-minute overall lead on the road – the peloton reacted decisively.
Meanwhile, Team Dimension Data principal Doug Ryder has hailed the performance of Cavendish at the Tour de France, saying his team had already “smashed expectations” thanks to the Manxman. The New Zealand-born 24-year-old is former victor of the Tour of Wales.
The Merseysider, who left it late to win stage 14 in Mende a year ago and also achieved one victory during the 2012 Vuelta a Espana, was then left with a clear and mostly downhill run to the finish line.
Cavendish has won three of the first six stages, taking the yellow jersey with victory on the first stage to Utah Beach and following it up with success on stage three and stage six.
“But you just keep going”, Cummings added.
“I just wanted to say sorry and to shake hands with him”, Prudhomme after coming off the bus.
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Cummings was part of a 29-man breakaway that split into several groups with about 30km left. “I didn’t have time beforehand yesterday”. “We’ll see what happens”, said Yates.
