The 2016 season was an exceptionally bad year for luck in the professional peloton. Before the season even started, half of the Giant-Alpecin team was nursing injuries after a wrong-way driver crashed into the riders at training camp in Calpe.
Although the usual slide-outs and tumbles that often change the course of races were overshadowed greatly by the serious injury to Stig Broeckx and the death of Antoine Demoitié, there were still a number of important incidents that shaped the major races this season. Cyclingnews looks back at five critical crashes that changed the races this year.
1. Mont Ventoux mayhem
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High winds forced the Tour de France organisers to move the finish line of the Mont Ventoux stage below the tree line, compressing a snaking mass of spectators into a poorly controlled mob that scarcely could move to allow the racers through. As maillot jaune Chris Froome, Bauke Mollema and Richie Porte attacked the final kilometer, the fans closed in forcing the television motorbike to come to a halt, crashing all three riders. Porte and Mollema quickly remounted and rode on, but Froome's bike was broken and his support car nowhere in sight.
The incident overshadowed the fine stage victory of Thomas De Gendt, and Froome's a pied chase up the mountain will forever be a running joke in the cycling world. That the judges reversed his time gains was no joke to Mollema, however.
— Mundo Ciclistico (@mundociclistico) May 27, 2016
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