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Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) might have been the winner on Stage 12 of the Tour de France to Mont Ventoux, but there were chaotic scenes behind.
De Gendt rode away from breakaway companions Daniel Navarro (Cofidis) and Serege Pauwels (Cofidis).
Behind in the peloton, it was Richie Porte (BMC), Chris Froome (Sky) and Bauke Mollema (Trek) who had broken clear of the rest, leaving Alejandro Valverde and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) to do the chasing.
Just inside the final kilometre though, and Porte ran straight into the back of a motorbike that was forced to stop abruptly with fans crowding it. Both he and Froome suffered mechanical incidents while Mollema picked himself back up and continued on.
Porte managed to return his bike to service, but Froome, with no teammates near by and the team car a mile back picked his bike up and started to run for the finish in one of the strangest things ever seen in a bike race.
Eventually, he ditched the bike and continued on his merry way before the neutral service car caught up with him. He would take a bike a number of sizes too small, before swapping it with one of his own and powering the last 400 metres to the finish.
Adam Yates was placed in the provisional yellow jersey for over an hour before the race officials made a decision to give Porte, Froome and Mollema their advantage at the time of the crash.
This meant Froome would retain yellow, opening up a 47 second game ahead of tomorrow’s crucial Individual Time Trial.
The fallout from this though, will likely carry on for the forseeable future.
Wind will play havoc on Stage 12 of the 2016 Tour de France as the peloton takes on Mont Ventoux, but not in the way it’s normally done. Join The Roar for live coverage from 10pm (AEST).
The stage, which was originally marked down for 184 kilometres from Montpellier to the top of the famous Ventoux, has been shortened by six kilometres to Chalet Reynard.
This is just before the peloton would hit the exposed part of the climb, where the barren landscape has been called everything from the lunar surface to a desert.
With winds reaching over 100 km/h at the top of Ventoux, it poses a safety risk for the riders, and also an impossible task – quite literally it was just about impossible to walk up there yesterday, let alone ride.
With wind forecasts the same for today, the race authorities have shortened the stage.
That doesn’t mean things will be any easier. It is still incredibly windy in the protected part up to Chalet Reynard, and of course Ventoux is one of the Tour’s hardest climbs on a normal day of racing.
Starting out in Montpellier, the riders will be subjected to more crosswinds and dangerous situations, similar to yesterday when Chris Froome made a four-man split and put more time into his rivals. The biggest question to come from that, and his exploits on the downhill run into Bagneres-du-Luchon, is how much energy does he have left?
If there are indeed more splits today, then it is going to be a stage raced at a hectic pace, with all the general classification riders trying to stay near the front of the peloton, and certainly the valley just before Ventoux will be hotly contested.
This valley of about 20 kilometres comes after back-to-back Category 3 and Category 4 climbs of the Cote de Gordes and the Cote des Trois Termes, before a short descent.
Interestingly, finishing at Chalet Reynard may be tougher than finishing at the top. Normally, following what will be tonight’s finish line there are about two kilometres where the gradient drops away, and riders have a chance to recover.
Not today though, with the gradient locked in between 7.5 and 10 per cent all the way to the new finish line, which comes after about ten kilometres of climbing.
Prediction
Today is the day for Nairo Quintana. With a time trial – and a difficult one at that – tomorrow, he needs to put time into Chris Froome, and the shortening of the climb means he could put in a much more brutal attack, knowing he can leave all his cards on the table early.
Watch out as well for Adam Yates and Daniel Martin, who have been riding brilliantly, and any of the French riders, who will want to impress on Bastille Day.
Be sure to join The Roar for live race updates of Stage 12 from 10pm (AEST), and don’t forget to add your own comments in the section below.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde