Tear gas and chaos at the Tour de France.
B4
BAGNERES-DE-LUCHON, FRANCE• Tear gas in riders’ eyes. A farmers’ protest blocking the road. Two key crashes on dangerous descents. The only thing lacking from the wild 16th stage of the Tour de France Tuesday was a shakeup in the overall standings.
Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe took advantage of his downhill skills to win the first of three mountainous legs in the Pyrenees, which was briefly interrupted when police used tear gas to disperse a farmers’ protest that had blocked the road with bales of hay.
The overall standings were unchanged. Geraint Thomas, in the yellow jersey, second-place Chris Froome and third-place Tom Dumoulin all crossed together nearly nine minutes behind.
The farmers’ protest occurred 30 kilometres into the 218-kilometre leg from Carcassonne to Bagnèresde-Luchon.
Thomas, Froome, Peter Sagan and other riders were treated with eye drops due to the tear gas amid a 15-minute delay. “I just felt my throat and nose were burning, eyes were burning afterward,” Froome said. “But I think quite a lot of riders were in a similar situation.
“Thankfully the effect didn’t last long. It was just a temporary thing with stinging and burning.”
It was the latest in a series of incidents involving spectators during this year’s race with Team Sky riders being pushed and spat on and 2014 champion Vincenzo Nibali having his back broken in a crash when a fan caught a camera strap on his handlebars.
“We feel safe. Obviously on some of the climbs not everyone’s our fans, but we don’t feel threatened,” Thomas said. “It’s hard in cycling when you’re just on the open road. It’s not like football or something. Everyone’s doing the best they can and hopefully everyone can just behave and let us race.”
The farmers were protesting a planned reduction of EU funding, according to French authorities.
“We are not going to lock the riders in a stadium or a tennis court,” tour director Christian Prudhomme said. “People should not block the road, no matter what causes they are fighting for.”
Thomas remained one minute 39 seconds ahead of Froome with Dumoulin 1:50 back.
Alaphilippe took the lead when Adam Yates crashed.
Belgian Philippe Gilbert was leading when he crashed earlier in the stage, hitting a wall and flipping off his bike spectacularly, but avoiding major injury. It was the same descent where Italian rider Fabio Casartelli died in the 1995 tour. “I thought I was broken everywhere,” said Gilbert. “But I ended up more or less OK.”
Yates led Alaphilippe by 20 seconds at the top of the Col du Portillon climb 10 kilometres from the finish, but lost control with six kilometres to go, falling to the pavement on a left turn and sliding across the road.
“You never know what’s coming up on some of these corners,” Yates said. “There was a bit of downforce or something and I came down. That’s all there is to it.
“Morale’s pretty damaged right now. When you come so close to winning a stage of the tour, it’s pretty devastating,” added Yates.
The race remains in the Pyrenees Wednesday for what could be the most challenging stage of the tour, a 65-kilometre leg from Bagnères-de Luchon to Saint-LarySoulan Col du Portet that features three gruelling climbs, including an uphill finish, and hardly a stretch of flat road.