France is reeling again after a large truck mowed through a crowd of revelers gathered for a Bastille Day fireworks display in the Riviera city of Nice, killing at least 80 people on Thursday night.
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Chris Froome kept hold of the Tour de France race leader s yellow jersey despite a crash with a motorcycle on Thursday that threatened to wreck his race hopes.
While Mollema and Porte were able to continue riding, Froome’s bike was broken and he subsequently began running up the climb as he waited for a replacement.
The 31-year-old British Olympian has already earned €21,160 from single stage prize money alone and is holder of the yellow jersey, meaning he leads the general classification. Froome started the day with a 28-second lead over Yates and now leads by 47 seconds.
For the first time in the race’s 113-year-history, a Tour leader was unable to use his bike after a crash and was forced to run uphill in order to try to limit the gap as much as possible.
Froome’s main rival Nairo Quintana (Movistar) of Colombia is third, 54 seconds behind, with fourth-placed Mollema 56 seconds off the pace.
“Two hours before my start it was chose to race and I made a decision to do everything I could to race well because that’s the only thing I can do”.
Speaking after the carnage, Porte said: “The crowd was all over the road and the motorbike just stopped right in front of us and we had nowhere to go but straight over the top of the motorbike”.
“Today, we want to pay homage to the victims with dignity”, said Prudhomme, wearing a black armband around his blue shirt and holding back tears. There are more and more people lining up the road.
“I agree that you come to the race, you have a good time, but you don’t need to be running beside the riders, you don’t need to hitting riders, pushing riders”, said Porte, who was being examined for possible injuries.
“If anyone was in the same situation they would feel the same”.
Nearly lost in all the drama was the fact that Belgian Thomas De Gendt beat compatriot Serge Pauwels in a sprint finish to win the stage after both had been part of an initial 13-man breakaway.
He said: “It was pretty unsafe in the last kilometre, but the fans make the sport and there’s not many sports where fans can get so close to the athletes”.
It was still a grueling 10-kilometer (six-mile) climb featuring several sections with gradients exceeding 10 percent.
Pinot finished third in the 2014 Tour won by Italian Vincenzo Nibali while a year ago he won a stage for the first time.
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Froome was the stage victor when the Tour previously scaled Ventouxs barren, 1,909-meter (6,263-foot) peak in 2013.
