Geraint Thomas laughed off a dramatic crash which saw him clatter into a telegraph pole on stage 16 of the Tour de France.
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Plaza Molina of the Lampre team won solo after a 201-km ride from Bourg de Peage. The hard bump sent the Sky rider thumping shoulder- and head-first into the telephone pole.
Defending Tour de France champion Vincenzo Nibali made the most of his skill at going both up and down hill to trim almost a half minute from his deficit to race leader Chris Froome.
“I’m not sure if numbers are going to fix everything, but certainly, I feel as a team and myself, we are definitely trying to be as open and transparent as possible”, said the Kenyan-born rider on Sky Sports.
Once again, Britain’s Chris Froome lost no time on his major rivals, weathering attacks from Spanish pair Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde.
Speaking after the stage, Cav said: ‘I was up last night with stomach problems.
Thomas, who has come of age this Tour, acting not only as Froome’s key lieutenant on all types of terrain but also remaining well up on the general classification himself, was fortunate not to sustain any serious injuries after being knocked completely off balance by Frenchman Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin), who had overcooked a tight right-hand corner. Thomas famously rode nearly the entire 2013 Tour route with a fractured pelvis as he helped Froome to win the 100th edition of the race.
“That is what we should do: continue to race in a clean and pure fashion”.
“I really don’t know what I should do better, I tried everything”. Jalabert told a French Senate investigation under oath in 2013 that he never took illegal products, but the Senate later published lab test results suggesting the presence of EPO in one of his drug test samples from the 1998 Tour.
And that is despite him wearing the green jersey as the points competition leader, and being poised to win it for the fourth successive year when the Tour ends in Paris on Sunday.
About a kilometer (half-mile) from the top of the final mid-grade climb in Monday’s 16th stage, the Sicilian used his racing savvy to speed ahead of Froome, and was leading him by 13 seconds at the top.
On a turbulent day for Sky, team-mate Pete Kennaugh pulled out of the race suffering from sickness, while Froome later complained that he felt he was suffering excessive scrutiny compared to other recent Tour winners.
Kerrison said Froome produced 414 watts and a pedal cadence of 97 revolutions per minute on average on the climb. G’s a tough lad, he’ll bounce back. “I can’t wait to get up there”.
The Slovakian was among the day’s main protagonists and embarked on a daring descent, but Plaza won by 30 seconds.
Contador stayed fifth 4:23 behind, after his attack was foiled.
No one could’ve anticipated how devastating Team Sky’s attack on the stifling 15.3-kilometre climb of the Col de Soudet would be.
“That’s a small taste of what we can expect these next few days in the Alps, after the rest day”.
He said: “We are here to race, and racing is a human endeavour”.
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“We’ve got to try to regain trust”.
