Froome was on my wheel and was straight into me.
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But the lasting memory will be one of Froome running uphill for the final kilometer in a desperate attempt not to lose valuable time.
“I don’t know what they’re going to do but they need to do something about it”.
But all’s well that ends well – thanks to a decision by the jury Froome still has that yellow jersey. “It was the right decision”. The crash happened less than 1 kilometer to the finish line.
Briton Adam Yates is the new overall leader, nine seconds ahead of Mollema with Quintana 14 seconds off the pace, according to provisional results.
The race jury made a decision to look into the incident and after a short time deliberating, it published an updated general classification with Froome back on top. I’d rather take it with my legs and not a crash in a bad situation.
“I think the jury and everyone on the organisation has played the fair play card”, added Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford.
“It is what it is, I’m really happy with the outcome”.
Two years ago, on the opening stage in Britain, Mark Cavendish crashed into Gerrans, knocking the Australian to the ground in the sprint finish.
Meanwhile, Belgian rider Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) won the stage.
“After his performances in the Tour so far he (Froome) is the rightful owner of the yellow jersey”.
“The stage is on”, said race director Christian Prudhomme.
A few minutes ahead of Froome and company, the stage win was contested by the remains of a 13-rider escape which included a handful of Frenchmen looking for a prestigious win on the Fête Nationale, but the home men froze and the surreal finish became a Belgian story, as the French term a weird event in which their neighbours are involved.
In the final kilometres, the road is usually protected by barriers, but Prudhomme said organisers could not set them up because of the strong winds blowing.
De Gendt called for action to be taken: “There were a lot of people in the last kilometer”, he said. “After what happened last night in Nice we have changed our security feature accordingly”. I got pushed, Serge [Pauwels] got pushed, we nearly crashed. First, Quintana’s team-mate Alejandro Valverde attacked, and after he was reeled in, Quintana feinted to go himself.
As the service vehicle drove up to him, Froome paused and mounted the bike he was handed, only to realize the clips did not match his shoes.
Porte said: “The crowd were just all on the road and the motorbike just stopped right in front of me and I had nowhere to go”. “It’s just a mess”. Next minute I was straight over the top of the motorbike.
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The Tour de France has since reminded crowds not to impede riders by getting too close to them as they pass by.
