Jack Bauer, in green, sits up following a crash in stage three of the Tour de France.
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German Quick step rider Tony Martin held on to his overall race lead.
His trademark burst of speed took him past the likes of Alexander Kristoff, Edvald Boasson Hagen and John Degenkolb but he was unable to find the second kick needed to edge past the fast-finishing Peter Sagan and Greipel who surged round the outside to take a fine win. “Happy to finish in one piece”. Reigning champion Vincenzo Nibali is still just over a minute and half behind Froome with Nairo Quintana even further back at nearly 2 minutes.
He won three stages in 2012 – including a fourth successive triumph on the Champs Elysees in Paris – as part of Bradley Wiggins’ Tour-winning Team Sky squad and two in 2013, but now questions will be asked about his enduring powers.
“GC (general classification) doesn’t play for me a big role, I want to keep the yellow jersey now as long as possible but I’m also realistic that when the big mountains come, I won’t be able to stay with the best riders”, he admitted. And it was good to because we managed to take Alberto (Contador) unhurt to the finish line in spite of the rain, the wind and the crashes.
And on the sixth day, another crash.
German rider Tony Martin, the victor on stage 4, still leads Froome by 12 seconds and Tejay Van Garderen, a promising American rider with strong climbing skills, by 25.
Moments later, he was sitting against a railing, staring into space as the dazed riders looked around for their bikes.
Martin was left clutching his shoulder on the tarmac and the 30-year-old German needed help from his teammates to cross the line as he couldn’t hold his handlebars, putting his continued participation at the Tour in doubt. Three went off the road to the right, tumbling into crash barriers.
In the confusion, Nibali actually thought Froome was to blame.
Bouhanni had no broken bones, but falling hard worsened injuries in his ribs, wrist and hip incurred in last month’s French national championships and which had already provoked a will-he-won’t-he mini-drama in local media over whether he would start the Tour.
“I was really very raging. But then, after watching the video I said sorry to him”, Nibali said.
“Did we clear it up? Yeah. We are not footballers, we are cyclists”. I think I touched the wheel of the rider in front of me.
Tony Martin put on an ashen-faced on the podium as he received another yellow jersey from race organizers. “That hasn’t changed here at the Tour de France”. “You don’t know what will happen around each corner.” – stage victor Zdenek Stybar.
Nibali had bruises on his knee while Quintana had blood on his arm.
I spoke to Cavendish just days before the start of the Tour in Utrecht and he was upbeat about his chances.
“It’s huge for African sport”, said Teklehaimanot, the first rider Eritrean to ride in the Tour.
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The stage was expected to favour the sprinters, and so it proved.
