Romain Bardet handed France it’s first win at this year’s Tour de France on Friday by winning stage 19 while Team Sky’s Chris Froome survived a crash to remain on track for a third title at cycling’s most prestigious race.
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Froome gave a touching pat on the back to Poels as he crossed the line one day closer to Paris, grateful to hold onto the lead after such a dramatic stage.
Adam Yates of Orica BikeExchange has had a great ride so far but the young English rider also lost his podium spot on the final climb yesterday with both Quintana and young French stage victor Romain Bardet leapfrogging him in the classification.
Trek-Segafredo’s Bauke Mollema had started the day in second but crashed once and nearly went off the road completely in a second incident, ultimately giving up nearly four and a half minutes to tumble down to 10th place.
Froome recognised that his four minute advantage overall over closest rival Bardet had kept him from worrying excessively.
“There’s nothing seriously injured by it could have gone either way”, said Froome, who leads stage victor Romain Bardet of France by 4:11 going into Saturday’s last competitive stage.
But with Colombian Nairo Quintana only able to grab a handful of seconds on Froome, most of the damage done on the mountain trek was physical.
Shortly after the 25-year-old Bardet then lit up the race with an attack on the tricky descent toward the foot of the final ascent to Le Bettex, Froome crashed on a right-hand bend.
Froome finished 36 seconds behind the Frenchman, crashing just 13.5 kilometers away from the finish line. Dutchman Tom Dumoulin also crashed and quit the Tour with a fractured left wrist, placing in serious doubt his availability for the Olympic Games in Rio, where he was a gold-medal favourite for the time trial.
“I think that I hit one of the white lines on the road and lost my front wheel”, Froome said after the race.
“I was really grateful nothing is seriously injured but it could have gone either way”. I can fall back on that a little bit and obviously it was great for me to have team-mates all the way up to the finish. There is never a quiet day on the Tour. The maillot jaune would finish the stage on teammate Geraint Thomas’ bike.
“Now I want to enjoy this and see how thigs go”. “You need to climb with the best but also to descend well”, said Bardet, one of the best in the world when it comes to downhill racing.
“I wasn’t going to run to the finish but luckily they stopped a few hundred metres later and I got on this (bike), and that was that”.
Yates avoided the crashes but, hanging on the back of the peloton, had looked ready to crack throughout the stage.
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When he was left behind again on the final climb he was out of helpers and came in 20 seconds behind Froome and 30 seconds behind Quintana to surrender his podium place.
