Last night’s stage on the daunting slopes of Mont Ventoux should have provided the Tour de France with its most spectacular highlights. Instead we got a ridiculous farce.
Race leader Chris Froome (Sky), Australia’s Richie Porte (BMC) and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) had managed to drop pre-race favourite Nairo Quintana and break away from the main group of general classification contenders on the final climb of the day.
But as they neared the finish line, things went horribly wrong.
The already narrow road was made even tighter as unruly spectators overflowed onto the surface, squeezing around the riders and the accompanying motorbikes until there was no way through.
The TV camera moto that was leading the trio up the hill came to a sudden halt as it was swamped by spectators. Porte, riding strongly in front of Froome and Mollema, had no time to react and slammed face first into the back of the motorbike, with Mollema and Froome crashing heavily over the top of him.
Chaos ensued.
While Mollema was able to get riding again, Porte’s bike was damaged and he was last seen waiting forlornly on the roadside waiting for help. Froome’s bike was also damaged, but rather than wait, he took off on foot, attempting to run to the finish line.
The sight of the yellow jersey running through hordes of spectators was surreal, comical almost if not for the seriousness of the matter.
When the neutral service vehicle finally fought its way through the surging throng of humanity, it gave Froome a bike that was way too small, and the gangly Brit was unable to clip into its pedals properly, let alone make any real headway on it.
The group of riders that Froome had ridden so hard to break away from – Quintana included – rode straight past him. He persevered until the Team Sky car made its way to him, jumped on a spare bike better suited to his size, and finally made it to the finish line.
He lost a huge chunk of time. When the provisional general classification results were announced, Froome had slipped to sixth overall, with a 53-second deficit to Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange). Those results also had Quintana jumping up to third place. Mollema, the only one of the trio involved in the crash to be able to keep riding, took over second place.
Not surprisingly, heads were shaking all over the place and anger was simmering.
The stage, which had already been shortened due to strong winds atop the exposed upper reaches of Mont Ventoux, had been spoiled. In fact, the validity of the whole race stood to be compromised.
Yates was to move into yellow. Quintana would jump to third, now with a lead of 39 seconds over Froome, despite the latter having comprehensively dropped him.
It just didn’t taste right.
This was not a mechanical incident. This was not bad luck caused by a puncture. This was not a lapse in concentration that had caused a touch of wheels. It was not an error in judgement, or a lack of legs, or a hunger flat. Riders lose time because of those things at every race. It might be frustrating, but that’s cycling.
This incident though was caused by spectators crowding the course and a motorbike that found itself trapped with nowhere to go, wiping out the very cyclists that had made the race the contest that it was. To penalise them would have stunk and I am sure that Yates would not have felt comfortable being presented with the yellow jersey.
Thankfully, sanity prevailed and Froome and Porte were awarded the same finishing time as Mollema, in a similar fashion to how the three-kilometre rule works on sprint stages.
The revised general classification put Froome back in yellow, leaving Yates in second position at 47 seconds, Mollema third at 56 seconds and Quintana fourth at 1:01. Porte jumped up to 11th place at 2:22.
It was a ruling that the race organisers had to make and I think they got it right. It was a better option than neutralising the whole stage, or worse still, doing nothing.
A precedent was set on Stage 7 when Yates had gained time on the chasing peloton only to be knocked off his bike by a deflating archway. After a protest by his team, he was awarded the time gap he had gained before the crash.
But really, this is something that shouldn’t happen. There has been a spate of spectator and vehicular interference with riders over the past couple of years, sometimes with dire consequences. Lives have been lost and serious injuries sustained. It can’t be allowed to continue.
The time has come for barriers to extend all the way down the popular mountain climbs and to other places where high spectator numbers can be expected. Motorbikes and other vehicles must also be restricted. Yes, motos are the reasons why we get glorious cycling photos and brilliant television footage, but a rider’s life and livelihood have to come first.
It has been talked about and talked about and talked about over the last few years. It is time some action was taken.
Maybe this embarrassing incident at the world’s biggest and highest profile race will finally be the catalyst for change.
Sean Lee
Expert
Unfortunately I think you are right Cugel!
Simoc
Guest
Yates was happy with the ruling after the race. He said he wanted to win the race with his legs (not through a farcical incident).
Sam Brown
Roar Guru
I doubt Yates would have wanted to get the Yellow Jersey because of that abomination of an incident.
volumetrica
Guest
Good article! Great tour, fascinating stage. Important to note that Froome wasn't "forced to run"- this was a headline for many newspapers. Cool Froome cracked and bolted! Very easy to sprain an ankle / fall over; running in cleats is to be avoided... Now, who will write an article about pedalilng while sitting on the top tube? Nathan Haas did it last year with less success. Broad flat carbon top tunes permit this- one inch steel tubes not quite so much... Who did it first?
Diggs
Roar Rookie
Pretty crazy stuff! It is a tough one and has been building steadily throughout the year. The crowds were pretty bad in the Giro mountain stages as well, but that paled in comparison to yesterday. Yesterday seemed to be the perfect storm. The crowds that had been camping out at the summit of Ventoux moved down and gathered at the new finish line, the lack of barriers which ASO promptly blamed the UCI for, the last minute decision to reduced the stage and the winds. I noticed Porte yelling at the muppets, in particular some french nutter in a french tricolour skin suit about 3 minutes before all hell broke loose. As the madness was nearing its climax I was thinking to myself that it was way too crowded, to the point where a rider would not be able to attack if he wanted to because there was simply no room left on the road I think Astana and Movistar would consider themselves winners. According to OBE backstage, Matt White was saying that Yates was making ground before the accident, so he can consider himself a little unlucky possibly. And Froome is down a nice pinarello and GPS unit, some idiot stole it after he discarded it apparently. I did have a good chuckle seeing Froome both running up a mountian in cleats, followed then the comedic spectacle of seeing him trying to ride a bike 3 sizes too small with the wrong clips haha. I can laugh because it wasn't me lol
Scott
Roar Rookie
Ridiculous situation, they need barriers in the last few kms of all stages. not just the sprints, and guards to move people away from the riding line. The organisers must have seen the crowds there when the riders were a few kms away and they should have done something to disperse them.
Cugel
Roar Rookie
"Maybe this embarrassing incident at the world’s biggest and highest profile race will finally be the catalyst for change." Since they appear to have papered over it via the time adjustments, probably not.
Lionheart
Guest
Crazy stuff. I remember when they started in York a couple of years ago, same thing very nearly happened there. Time to act alright.
Dianne Andrews
Guest
Agree absolutely Viva, a boycott seems to be the best way to get the organisers to do something about protecting these elite sportsmen. The sport is tough enough without having to dodge lunatics (obese clowns in mankinis lol)
Sean Lee
Expert
I feel sorry for Thomas de Gendt as well. His win has been forgotten about in all this too! When we think back on this stage it will be the Froome/Porte/Mollema incident that we remember, not de Gendt! That's harsh.
HardcorePrawn
Roar Guru
I'd forgotten all about that! Aru seemed to deliberately ignore the commissaire too. The commentary team (still Matt and Robbie at that point I think?) were rather incredulous at what they were watching and fully expected a punishment, but nothing...
Albo
Guest
Yep ! Only surprise is that this hasn't happened many more times in recent tours ! The fools on the hills will cause more strife before this tour is over. There are just too many fool spectators to be able to police it for the safety of the riders.
Scott Pryde
Expert
The only winners out of this were Astana! They could have been in all sorts for the whole following of cars and sticky bidon incident... Instead Aru didn't cop any penalties at all.
Sean Lee
Expert
I don't think Froomey was thinking very clearly when he took off on his run. Anger and adrenalin had taken over. Yes, the trio would have gained a few more time, but that is impossible to estimate. Under the circumstances, I think the organisers came to the best conclusion.
Tom M
Guest
reminded me of when a fan threw thumbtacks all over the road at the top of a climb a few years back
Sean Lee
Expert
Yeah, as much as I would love to see Adam Yates go into the yellow jersey, it would have been by default had the provisional results stood last night. I am sure he wouldn't have been comfortable accepting it either. I couldn't believe what I was watching. What a farce. More embarrassement for cycling.
Sean Lee
Expert
I think the seven kilometres of the climb that they didn't do still had barriers, so they could have moved at least part of that further down the mountain. I suppose the shortening of the climb also saw the supporters bunched up more, eg they had seven less kilometres to spread out along. Lets hope the organisers learn something from this and take steps to ensure that it doesn't happen again.
Sean Lee
Expert
I actually felt sick in the stomach at the end of that stage. Sick in the stomach and angry. It was an absolute joke. To have the biggest bike race in the world potentially ruined by disrespectful fans makes cycling a laughing stock. The riders deserve better.
Geoff Parkes
Expert
I agree Steve, if they wanted to be completely fair about it they should have also taken into account the number of seconds Mollema lost on the ground and getting going again. It's one thing to give Froome and Porte his time, but the gap would actually have been a bit wider. But nevertheless, a much better outcome than doing nothing. Given the distance of the race I'd imagine it would be almost impossible to put barriers up on all climbs. And even if they did, the idiots will still find a way around it anyway. Any solution requires a massive culture and attitude change, but I'm not sure how that could be achieved. What is interesting also, is that many of the riders still speak up in favour of having the crowds close. George Bennett took a heavy hit at the bottom of the Arcalis but was quick to say that he enjoys and feeds off the crowd being so close. So go figure. One other point - it was complete chaos as it happened, but even with that as an excuse, the TV coverage was less than stellar. There was clearly vision available that we weren't seeing live.
jameswm
Roar Guru
I think that's right. Anyway - sanity prevailed. I think technically Froome couldn't have run like he did without a bike, but he didn't go far. The trio would have got more time, but the race organisers couldn't have estimated that. Giving Porte and Froome Mollema's time was about all they could do.