- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
It was frantic, at times disastrous, and overall just weird. This was stage one of the 100th edition of the Tour de France, a stage that produced some of the most unusual events a cycling race has seen for quite some time.
It was meant to be a simple 213 kilometre journey from Port Vecchio to Bastia that would allow the sprinters the chance to contend for stage honours, due to the flat nature of the course.
But the stage ended up being anything but simple after the bus of Australian team, Orica GreenEdge, became stuck under the banner that was vertically above the finish line.
Therefore, the race finish was blocked, and after a number of unsuccessful attempts aimed at moving the bus, it seemed as if the bus was glued to the ground.
As the peloton entered the final seven kilometres, the bus was still parked, causing great panic for the Tour organisers, as to how was the race going to be finished.
There was speculation that the race would be finished three kilometres out from the original finish line, however those rumours soon evaporated as the bus was finally cleared with the riders only four kilometres from the finish, – saving Le Tour de France a potential, huge embarrassment that would have brought front page headlines worldwide.
However the drama didn’t end there. A series of huge crashes began taking out many riders, with the first one only two kilometres from the finish and involving stage favourites, Mark Cavendish and Peter Sagan – blowing their stage chances to pieces.
Moments later top German sprinter, Andre Greipel was then found on the side of the road with technical issues in regards to his bike, before Australian hopeful, Matt Goss went tumbling down to earth in another heavy crash.
This left only one main sprinting contender to go for the stage win, Marcel Kittel who was left in a Steve Bradbury like situation, with all of the big favourites having fallen, and with it their hopes, gone.
Kittel took his chance, with the Argos-Shimano rider coming from the outside to take a comfortable stage victory ahead of Alexandre Kristoff of Katusha.
However Kittel’s triumph, as well as many other events of the stage posed numerous questions and key talking points that are likely to be heavily scrutinised in the coming days.
Firstly, as SBS analyst, Scott McGrory pointed out, the roads were simply too narrow in the closing kilometres of today’s stage, resulting in too many crashes.
Do roads need to be more carefully picked to host Tour de France chances in order to avoid more crashes?
Secondly, despite the fact that no genuine sprinters were contesting Kittel in the sprint finish, it was without a doubt a dominant performance. Is the 25-year-old any chance of surprising the likes of Cavendish and Sagan by taking out the green jersey in this year’s race?
It was certainly a remarkable day that produced panic, surprise, excitement and a range of other varied emotions.
If last night’s stage was anything to go by, we are certainly in for one heck of a Tour.
Fancy a wager on your favourite sport? Head on over to PlayUp for great odds and friendly customer service and pick a winner. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.