The Daily Telegraph - 24.07.2019

By Tom Cary

CYCLING CORRESPONDENT

Geraint Thomas survived yet

another crash at a sweltering Tour

de France yesterday as riders

claimed it would be “suicide” to

keep sending them out in 40C heat.

The Welshman, who remains

second in the general classification,

1min 35sec behind Frenchman

Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-

QuickStep), hit the deck when his

gears jammed in a “freak” accident

roughly 40km into stage 16, a 177km

loop around Nimes.

An otherwise unremarkable

stage, won by Australia’s Caleb

Ewan (Lotto-Soudal) from a bunch

sprint, ended in controversy as rid-

ers hit out at being made to race for

over four hours in a heatwave.

Peter Sagan, the triple world cham-

pion, was the most outspoken.

“If it’s as hot as this in the moun-

tains, the CPA [riders’ union]

should do something,” the Slovak

said, looking ahead to the three

brutal Alpine stages that begin to-

morrow and which will decide this

race. “They should do something to

protect us. That’s what we pay

them for.” Slicing his throat with

his hand, Sagan added: “If it’s this

hot in the mountains, it will be sui-

cide.”

Nicolas Portal, the Team Ineos

sporting director, agreed that it had

been dangerously hot and humid,

with both team cars running out of

water bottles after 90km. “Today is

very hot, everybody knows

that, but after 90km we had

both cars empty with bi-

dons [bottles],” Portal

said, adding that Ineos

set out with 10 bottles

for each of their eight

riders. “It was probably

the same with other team

cars. It’s also humid.”

It remains to be seen what

effect the extreme heat will

have on the battle for yellow;

whether any of the contenders

suffer long-term. Today’s stage

sends the peloton 200km

across country from Pont du

Gard to Gap.

Alaphilippe may already

be feeling it. The race leader

defied yellow-jersey protocol

last night, leaving the finish

area straight after anti-doping con-

trol and declining any media du-

ties. He was understood to be

dehydrated.

Thomas, who stands to inherit

the yellow jersey should

Alaphilippe fall away, will just be

happy still to be in contention after

his third crash of this race and his

fourth in a month. The Welshman

was rounding a bend when his

gears “jumped and jammed”. “It

was just a freak thing,” he told ITV.

“I knew the race wasn’t on so I just

got back into the group. It’s just

frustrating.”

Thomas – who was forced to pull

out of the Tour of Switzerland last

month after hitting his head in a

high-speed crash – has now hit a

metal barrier on stage one in Brus-

sels, crashed again on stage eight

into St-Etienne and then again yes-

terday. None of the crashes were

his fault but he is certainly living

dangerously.

He spent a while holding on to

the side of the Ineos team car yes-

terday, being checked over by a

doctor, but reported no ill effects.

Bradley Wiggins, commentating

for Eurosport, said he thought the

Briton would be fine.

“This is the guy who rode the

[2013] Tour de France with a bro-

ken pelvis. He’s so resilient, he’s so

mentally tough. He’ll put this to

one side now and will be focusing

on tomorrow.”

It is often only in the days follow-

ing a crash that a rider knows for

sure whether he has escaped un-

scathed, however. Thomas’s body

may be bruised, he may not sleep

well. The accumulation of crashes

may begin to tell.

It is perhaps worth noting that

Thomas managed to get through

the whole of last year’s race

without once hitting the

ground. Asked whether

crashes came looking for

him, the 2018 champion

replied: “Sometimes,

but it was such a freak

thing. I just took off an

old scar, so it was new

skin bleeding. I’m all

right. I just saw [the

doctor], he sprayed water

on me and that was it.”

after controversy over Tour omission

Thomas survives

crash but riders

fear ‘suicide’ heat

Bunch sprint: Caleb Ewan

celebrates winning stage 16

Back in the saddle: Mark Cavendish

will have a point to prove tomorrow

Rolf Aldag, Cavendish’s perfor-

mance director at Dimension Data,

felt the rider’s form was good

enough to make the team’s eight-

man line-up. However, the German

was overruled by team boss Doug

Ryder. The controversy nearly

caused Aldag to quit the team after

the first stage in Brussels. “It’s no

secret I wanted him [Cavendish]

here,” Aldag said. “I think it would

suit our strategy but ultimately it’s a

team owner decision. I have that

level of arrogance that I think – af-

ter being involved in around 50

stage wins at the Tour – that I have

an all-right judgment and that I’ve

not made too many mistakes in my

management career.”

Aldag decided to stay as he did

not want to “rip the team to pieces”.

Dimension Data have had a difficult

Tour with no stage wins yet.

1992 M. Indurain

1993 M. Indurain

1994 M. Indurain

1995 M. Indurain

1996 B. Riis

1997 J. Ullrich

1998 M. Pantani

1999 L. Armstrong*

2000 L. Armstrong

2001 L. Armstrong

2002 L. Armstrong

2003 L. Armstrong

2004 L. Armstrong

2005 L. Armstrong

2006 O. Pereiro

2007 A. Contador

2008 C. Sastre

2009 A. Contador

2010 A. Schleck

2011 C. Evans

2012 B. Wiggins

2013 C. Froome

2014 V. Nibali

2015 C. Froome

2016 C. Froome

2017 C. Froome

2018 G. Thomas

*Armstrong was stripped

of his titles after his drug

taking was exposed

Stage 17

Today

200km

Pont du Gard » Gap

88 (start height) 745 (finish height)

km 62 104.5 191.5

Vaison-la-

Romaine

Cote de la Rochette-

du-Buis 756m Col de la

Sentinelle 981m

Vaison-la-

Romaine

62km

Start

Pont

du Gard

Finish

Gap

Cote de la

Rochette-

du-Buis

104.5km

Col de la

Sentinelle 191.5km

The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 24 July 2019 *** 11

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