The incident – triggered by a fan getting too close to the base of the arch and accidentally dislodging a pin holding it in place, thus letting the air out of the inflatable banner – meant that organisers chose to take the official stage times from the 3km to go mark rather than on the finishing line.
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Prudhomme and organiser ASO explained how a spectator accidentally snagged the cord of one of the generators powering the motor inflating the red arch.
“The cable powered the generator that powered the arch, the inflatable”. We will reinforce the security around the structure so that this doesn’t happen again. In his debut Tour previous year, he placed three times in the top ten. “It was an accident, not someone looking to break it”.
Pinot was joined by Alberto Contador’s Tinkoff teammate, Rafal Majka, and time trial specialist Tony Martin as riders climbed the Tourmalet for the 84th time in Tour history. “It’s a good thing it was just me on my own. The Tour is the Tour, it’s special”, said Cummings.
“I won the stage, but I got back to even”.
He crossed the line more than 2-1/2 minutes behind the other top guns.
South African, Daryl Impey (Orica-Bikeexchange) came in second, 0:01:05 behind the victor while Spaniard Dani Navarro (Cofidis) came third.
Cummings had been part of a 29-man breakaway which went early in the 162.5km stage, and began to whittle down in number as they speeded towards the Pyrenees.
Van Avermaet, who has a lead of five minutes 11 seconds, will look to keep hold of the yellow jersey after stage seven.
Overall favorites Chris Froome and Nairo Quintana could be a factor on the Aspin, which is being included in the Tour for the 73rd time.
On the attack in the Tour de France, the British rider was suddenly performing a somersault in midair after an inflatable arch marking the final kilometre collapsed and hit him during a freaky finale to Friday’s seventh stage.
The 31-year-old Briton now only has Belgian legend Eddy Merckx ahead of him on the all-time list of stage victories with a once-seemingly unattainable mark of 34.
Adam Yates, a British rider with the Orica team, was hit by the arch and reached the finish with a bloodied chin. “(Team Direct Energie sports director) Jimmy (Engoulvent) yesterday reproached me for not having thrown my bike forward enough”, said the Olympic silver medallist from the omnium on the track in London.
“The doctor is checking him.his shoulder is aching”. It was cool. Bike racing is just fun, but maybe I spent a little bit too much.
“We have a time control at the 3km (left) mark so it is likely that we’ll be taking the timings at that point”, he said.
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“All we could do was prevent the escapees keeping a massive gap and hope for a better chance (on Saturday)”.
