Froome, the 2013 Tour victor, is feeling extremely confident.
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Cavendish abandoned last year’s Tour after crashing in the first stage. “We can only keep fighting”.
With three weeks of punishing racing still ahead of him and a dislocated shoulder, Adam Hansen would not need more excuses to pull out of the Tour de France.
Cavendish, who has 25 Tour stage wins to his name, seemed to stop his effort after realizing he would not be able to clinch the win. Nibali himself was panicking, pulling and then attacking, but there was little support for the defending champion and the group was caught by Quintana, Peraud and co. “Classics-style crosswinds, rain … that was a big reason for having them in the team and they proved their worth today”.
“But we managed to maintain the team and worked with Astana to avoid losing more time”. But Dennis was caught out in the split, and with Van Garderen in the lead group, BMC refocused their energy on protecting its overall leader, rather than supporting Dennis.
Small gaps can quickly become massive gashes, especially when echelons form.
Nibali, Quintana and Pinot all rolled in 1 minute, 28 seconds behind. However, the groups were brought back together by Cannondale-Garmin.
“It was an unfortunate day”. “We’re racing our bikes, these things happen”.
“It’s a lot of time lost for today but it can change tomorrow or the day after”. “I knew it was not going to be easy, but I won yellow and that’s good”.
“It’s a shame, but all we can do is look ahead”.
“It was a question of bad luck, not my legs”. Etixx put six riders into the front group, but came away empty-handed on the stage.
As Cavendish slowed at the line, veteran Swiss star Fabian Cancellara charged past for third and a time bonus that allowed him to capture the yellow jersey, just one second ahead of Cavendish’s German team-mate Tony Martin.
But Romain Bardet, sixth past year, is right down in 78th and 3mins off Cancellara. “In the last kilometer, I calculated that I would be in the yellow jersey”.
Cavendish said: “I think Mark went too early and kind of left me hanging”. Victoria’s Ryder Hesjedal was 132nd. The 2012 Giro champ lost contact with the first group, and crossed the line at 5:04. With 19 stages left to go, Froome can be backed at 6/4 pretty much across the board.
Nairo Quintana also failed to bridge across with Chris Froome and Alberto Contador when the break formed.
“Ryder was split off, but Dan and Andrew were still there”.
They joined forces with Etixx-Quick Step, who were riding for their British sprinter Mark Cavendish, to set a blistering pace as the race entered the final 50km. “We died”, Cavendish told reporters.
No-one wanted to give an inch as, should a split in the bunch occur in blustery conditions, it could grow and the consequences could end a rider’s hopes for the day and potentially the title.
“You just have to accept these things in cycling”, Nibali said calmly. “We controlled it, everything went to the book and then we messed it up”.
With the overall leader Rohan Dennis stuck in the chasing group, all Etixx had to do was control the race, execute some relatively simple tactics, and the stage and yellow jersey would be theirs. I couldn’t actually believe it when I heard that he was distanced.
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“Everyone said to me it must be a dream come true and it really is”.
