Froome’s near-loss of the yellow jersey through a crash will raise serious questions of how the huge crowds lining the roads can be kept under control, given how closely it came to affecting the Tour’s overall outcome. “You always have to expect the unexpected at the Tour”.
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The problems at cycling’s most prestigious race were overshadowed in France hours later, when a truck drove on to the sidewalk and plowed through a crowd of revelers celebrating the national day who’d gathered to watch fireworks in the French resort city of Nice. Some officials and eyewitnesses described it as a deliberate attack.
The race’s first time trial comes on Friday with a hilly 37.5km leg from Bourg-Saint-Andeol to La Caverne du Pont-D’Arc. “I had nowhere to go and straight over the top of [the motorbike]. It’s just a mess”, Porte said.
“I knew the auto with my spare bike was five minutes behind”. Things have got to change, and I cant believe there werent barriers there.. The Tour director tells the Guardian it’s an “incident that might have never happened before in 100 years”.
The motorbike appeared to have stopped because fans blocked its path.
Froome was reduced to running up the mountain on foot after his bike was broken when he, Richie Porte and Bauke Mollema collided with a television bike on the crowded road a little over a kilometre before the finish line.
He ran as fast as his cycling shoes would carry him before taking a bike from the neutral service vehicle, but struggled to gain traction on the ill-fitting machine and had to swap it again when his team auto finally made it through.
He said: “I’m not whinging because it’s me but I don’t think it’s right that motorbike and crowds can make the race turn out like this”.
As Froome ran through the crowds he attempted to communicate with his team with his radio but the crowds prevented the Team Sky auto from reaching him. It took up to two minutes for him to get a spare bike but the pedals did not suit him. I cant understand how so many people were allowed there.
Mollema was able to continue and Porte also later got back under way, but Froome’s bike was unrideable and he consequently began running up the climb.
In the aftermath of the chaotic stage, Tour officials chose to award Froome and Porte the same stage time as Mollema. The entire ordeal cost Froome 1 minute and 21 seconds and dropped him to sixth place.
Provisional results meant the double Tour victor lost his race lead to fellow Briton Adam Yates, previously second overall. Froome’s main rival Nairo Quintana (Movistar) of Colombia is now third, 54 seconds behind, with fourth-placed Mollema 56 seconds off the pace.
“I wouldn’t want to take the jersey like this”. With this crash, it initially looked as though he lost his lead in the tour- something symbolized by the cyclist wearing the yellow jersey.
“If anyone was in the same situation they would feel the same”.
The pair were joined by Trek-Segafredo’s Mollema and were comfortably ahead of a group including Yates and Movistar’s Nairo Quintana before calamity struck and there was the weird sight of the yellow jersey running up a mountain. “I’d rather take it with my legs and not a crash in a bad situation. It’s got nothing to do with sport”, the Frenchman said. “It is what it is”.
Lotto-Soudal teammates Andre Greipel and Thomas De Gendt are part of a 13-man breakaway early in the stage with a lead of almost 10 minutes on the pack.
Tour director Christian Prudhomme said it was “an outstanding decision” and explained there were more spectators concentrated near the finish because the stage had been shortened due to violent winds at top of the Ventoux.
With swathes of fans encroaching on the road making for a narrow route on the ascent up Mont Ventoux, BMC Racing rider Richie Porte ran into the back of a breaking motorbike. “They should do something about it”.
Overnight, race organizers moved the finish line, making it 6 kilometers shorter because of high winds at the summit.
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Perhaps it was Bastille Day, maybe just the inevitable drama of the iconic Mont Ventoux climb, but the Tour de France had a moment of extreme farce on Thursday. He finished third in the 2012 Giro dItalia.
