The opening road race stage of the Tour de France is always, a tense, nervous affair, with the sprinters fighting for double prize of the first stage victory and a shot at taking the yellow jersey. In contrast, the overall contenders were expecting a nervous day and were simply hoping to avoid crashing and losing time, diametric opposites that indicated danger for the finale.
For 180 of the 201km stage, they were able to sit safely in the guts of the peloton. Then the tension rose in the final 20km and then suddenly, with a touch of elbows on a curve in the fight for position with 10km to go, Chris Froome (Team Sky) crashed. An on-bike video showed Froome desperately trying to move up before touching elbows with Rik Zabel of Katusha and suddenly going off the road into the ditch.
In a split second, the Tour de France changed dramatically. Other riders also crashed and were gapped and forced to chase all the way to the line to limit their time losses. Nairo Quintana suffered two broken wheels after hitting a traffic island with five kilometres to go and suddenly he was back in the Froome group, also fighting to save his race.
ADVERTISEMENT
In just five kilometres, the innocuous flat stage had shaken up the overall classification, with instant winners and losers and the clock at the finish measuring the seriousness off the earthquake.
Sixty-three riders finished in the same times as stage winner and first race leader Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors). The overall contenders to have made the cut included Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), Geraint Thomas (Team Sky), Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale), Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb), Mikel Landa and Alejandro (Movistar), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin), Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First-Drapac) and Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates).
Those losing time were fewer but included Froome and Quintana, along with Richie Porte (BMC Racing) and Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott). The Colombian lost the most, finishing 1:15 down on those listed above.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/tour-de-france-crash-shakes-up-first-overall-classification
No comments:
Post a Comment