Adam Yates, wearing the best young rider’s white jersey, Thomas de Gendt, wearing the best climber’s dotted jersey, Peter Sagan, wearing the best sprinter’s green jersey, Chris Froome, wearing the overall leader’s yellow jersey, and Stage victor Tom Dumoulin observe a minute of silence to commemorate the victims of the Nice truck attack.
Advertisement
Amid reinforced security, the race rolled on and thousands of people lined the 23-mile route in Ardeche to celebrate the Tour and pay homage to the dozens killed and injured by a truck that drove through beachfront crowds celebrating Bastille Day.
Dutch rider Tom Dumoulin won the stage 13 time trial from Bourg-Saint-Andeol to La Caverne du Pont d’Arc while Froome set the second-best time to add another minute to his cushion over second place.
THE Tour de France’s 13th stage got underway under tightened security on Friday after riders had observed a minute’s silence in tribute to the scores of victims of the Nice attacks. The stage is on. “We asked ourselves (whether the stage should be cancelled) but we think, after agreeing with authorities, that the race must continue”.
Froome lacked the juice to beat time trial specialist Dumoulin but showed no ill effects of the 12th stage crash when he retained the yellow jersey thanks to a jury decision that cancelled the time he and Porte had lost in the incident.
“The Tour will continue with restraint and dignity”.
Froome was involved in truly farcical scenes 1km from the finish of stage 12 yesterday, when a collision involving a television motorbike, Richie Porte and Bauke Mollema wrecked his bicycle and saw him tackle a portion of the infamous, but shortened, Mont Ventoux climb on foot.
Tour leader Chris Froome took time on all his major rivals for the general classification and now sits atop the leaderboard with minutes in hand.
“This was my big goal before this Tour de France”, Dumoulin said after securing the stage victory.
I saw things past year during the Tour that I think went too far.
“We took an exceptional decision because of this exceptional [wind] situation, an incident that might have never happened before in 100 years…there will be an investigation”, he said.
The Tour’s official Twitter feed wrote “The heart of the Tour beats for Nice”.
French climber Romain Bardet also expressed sadness over the attack.
“I paced it alright I think, it’s just that real fight at the end, when you’ve got exhausted legs anyway, it’s tough going”, said Thomas.
After 71 riders reached the finish, Portuguese national champion Nelson Oliveira had an early best time of 51 minute, 46 seconds. Froome took second place, one minute behind Dumoulin but well ahead of his main competitors.
The huge numbers of fans who usually assemble on the race’s most famous climbs are given the freedom of the roads for all but the final few kilometres, but one of cycling’s greatest selling points is becoming an increasing risk given the difficulty of protecting the riders. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.
Advertisement
Be proactive – Use the “Flag as Inappropriate” link at the upper right corner of each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
