Team Sky’s Chris Froome extended his race lead at the Tour de France today despite stage 12 descending into chaos on Mont Ventoux.
Froome had attacked in a show of strength and was riding at the head of the general classification group when the fan-lined climb became too congested and, with no roadside barriers, forced a TV motorbike to come to a halt.
Richie Porte (BMC Racing), Froome and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) had nowhere to go and ploughed into the back of the stationary motorbike and one another. With Froome’s bike damaged in the incident, the yellow jersey was forced to run up the hors-categorie climb as he awaited support in the form of a replacement bike.
Despite the initial time loss in the incident seeing Froome slip to a provisional sixth place, the race organisers reviewed the situation and eventually credited Froome with the same time as Mollema at the finish, allowing the Brit to not only retain the yellow jersey, but extend his advantage to 47 seconds.
Eventually Froome was able to pull on yellow for a fifth day running, with his Team Sky teammates again putting in a towering performance across the 178-kilometre stage.
“Mont Ventoux always throws up something different and today was no exception,” said Froome after the stage.
“Obviously it’s really unfortunate what happened in the last couple of kilometres, but ultimately I think common sense has prevailed and the commissaires have come to the right decision, so I’d like to thank them for that.
“You always have to expect the unexpected at the Tour and I’ve said all along that this would be my biggest challenge yet. Now I’m just looking forward to tomorrow’s time trial”
After Etixx – Quick-Step had pushed hard to split the bunch in the crosswinds on the approach to the climb, Team Sky were forced to overcome a multi-rider pile-up on the descent off the Col des Trois Termes.
Simon Gerrans (Orica-BikeExchange) was leading the group down and crashed, leaving Ian Stannard with nowhere to go. The Brit was able to remount and finish the stage, with the crash also holding up Luke Rowe and Wout Poels.
Order was eventually restored with Vasil Kiryienka pacing the lower slopes of Ventoux, which had been shortened by 6km due to winds whipping up in excess of 100 km/h towards the summit.
While up ahead Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) won the stage, Mikel Landa took over before Movistar launched their moves with Alejandro Valverde followed by Nairo Quintana. Poels and Sergio Henao combined superbly to shut down the danger, before Froome launched his own stinging move.
With Quintana quickly put into difficultly, Froome, Porte and Mollema had opened out a gap before the collision. In the incredible scenes that followed, Froome ran up the climb before finally being reached by neutral service – with team cars struggling to make their way through the over-crowded climb.
Eventually Froome was able to get his own replacement bike, blasting up the final 400 metres to eventually learn he would retain yellow.
Froome running in the Ventoux – Étape 12… by tourdefrance
Bart Hesselmann