He lived in Belgium and France from 1987 to 1996, covering every major cycling race, and returns to Europe regularly to write about the sport.
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Chris Froome, the leader of the Tour de France, the world’s most famous cycling event, made headlines last week for running a portion of the race without his bike.
It was the 25-year-old’s second stage victory of the Tour but the big victor was Briton Froome. “I wondered if the Tour would continue or not”, said Dumoulin.
Starting well before the race’s overall leaders on a day featuring 45-m.p.h. winds, Dumoulin dominated the 37.5-kilometre race against the clock from Bourg-Saint-Andeol to La Caverne du Pont-D’arc, the decorated cave that contains human drawings from about 30,000 years ago.
There were no kisses and none of the usual podium celebrations. Two hours before the start I thought “Ok, we’re racing anyway”. The fastest over that stretch was Dumoulin of Team Giant-Alpecin who recorded a time of just over 50 minutes and 15 seconds.
Froome appears firmly on course for a third Tour victory, but his Team Sky sports director, Nicolas Portal, insisted the Briton would not now ride defensively.
Dutchman Bauke Mollema was the next best placed of the contenders and moves up to second overall, now one minute and 47 seconds off Froome.
Then on Friday, Froome used his time trialling skills to more than double his lead and he now sits two minutes and 59 seconds ahead of Quintana in fourth.
Joining the overall leader and stage victor in the only ceremony held after Friday’s time trial (organizers did not hold the usual separate jersey presentations) were Yates, in the best young rider white jersey; Belgian Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) in the polka dot top climber jersey; and Slovakian Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) in the green points jersey.
Later, Froome and Dumoulin spoke with outward emotion.
A gunman smashed a truck into a crowd of revellers celebrating Bastille Day on July 14, 2016 in the French Riviera city of Nice, killing at least 84 people in what President Francois Hollande called a “terrorist” attack.
Earlier, near the podium where the minute’s silence was held, Froome told reporters: “It was nice of the other riders to respect that minute of silence”.
“Our thoughts are with all the families affected down in Nice”. “We have been asking ourselves if the race should continue and after consulting with authorities we have decided that it should”.
“It’s the strangest moment of my career, it’s hard to talk about today’s stage”, Froome said afterwards.
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Froome, who lives along the coast from Nice in Monaco, was subdued at the finish. “We’re going to try everything we can”.
