Watch out! Tour umbrella threat
On long, mostly flat sultry stages like the sixth, all Chris Froome and the other leaders in the Tour de France want to do is take it easy. Let the sprinters have their day in the sun and prepare for the next mountain stages this weekend. Until a beach umbrella floats across the pack.
‘‘There was a bit of wind and the parasol took off and ended up in the road,’’ said Froome, who had to veer out of the way. ‘‘That’s the Tour.’’
Otherwise, Froome said, he spent yesterday chatting with other riders and admiring the views as the peloton rode into champagne country and through Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises, the hometown of France’s wartime hero and former president, General Charles de Gaulle.
‘‘That’s the most relaxing day in the Tour I’ve ever had,’’ Froome said after five hours in the saddle. ‘‘I actually quite enjoy these long days.’’
At the conclusion of the mostly flat 216-kilometre leg from Vesoul to Troyes - the race’s secondlongest stage - Kittel had little trouble in the sprint finish, with Peter Sagan and Mark Cavendish both no longer in the race.
As the other contenders bunched together on the right side of the road, Kittel burst forward around them on the left and easily created a comfortable gap allowing him to celebrate as he crossed the line.
It was Kittel’s second victory in this year’s race and 11th overall in his Tour career.
‘‘I was really confident in my team,’’ Kittel said. ‘‘I was also really confident in myself today. There was just a moment when I broke free and started to go ahead.’’
Stage four winner Arnaud Demare finished second and Andre Greipel was third.
Dion Smith was the best of the Kiwi riders, finishing 11th in a bunch sprint, while George Bennett is 25th in the general classification.
Sagan, the world champion, was disqualified for elbowing Cavendish to the ground two days ago. The fall resulted in Cavendish, who has 30 Tour wins, abandoning the race with a broken shoulder.
Kittel said the absence of Cavendish and Sagan has altered the racing in that their teams are no longer battling out the sprint finishes.
He was repeatedly asked after his win about their absence.
‘‘It’s a bit sad that it’s all about this decision,’’ he said. ‘‘The level that we have here for the sprints is still very, very high.’’
A three-man breakaway rode out front for most of the stage. Perrig Quemeneur, Frederik Backaert and Vegard Stake Laengen were caught by the peloton with three kilometres to go.
Froome remained 12 seconds ahead of Sky team-mate Geraint Thomas and 14 seconds ahead of Fabio Aru of Italy.
Richie Porte in fifth place overall and other riders eyeing victory in Paris on July 23 were simply pleased to get the long, hot stage over without incident.
‘‘It was such a long day. Probably, you know, could have had the same result with half the distance but it’s a nice one to get done,’’ Porte said.
On such days, Porte said, ‘‘there’s nothing to gain but there’s so much to lose. ... It was quite a frantic finish.’’ Marcus Daniell has completed a clean sweep of New Zealand first-round wins in the gentlemen’s doubles at Wimbledon yesterday.
Daniell and his Brazilian partner, Marcelo Demoliner defeated Ariel Behar from Uruguay and Belarusian Alexander Bury 6-4 6-3 5-7 6-4 in two hours 18 minutes on court No 9.
It was a solid performance from Daniell and Demoliner, who won a tournament together in Surbiton last month, and they were able to lift their game at important times to get the breaks, while both served extremely well.
Daniell joins Michael Venus and Artem Sitak in the second round, with both of them winning five-set matches on Thursday.
The first set came to a climax when Bury was broken, serving at 4-5.
The Kiwi-Brazilian combo got an early break in the second set, which they held onto.
In the third, they had three break points with Bury serving at 5-5 but couldn’t convert any of them and in the next game were broken.
The disappointment of having to go to a fourth set didn’t last long as Behar was broken in the opening game.
The match came down to Daniell needing to hold serve at 5-4 and he did without dropping a point.
Daniell and Demoliner played the match in a determined manner, but it was also clear they were enjoying themselves and for the most part played with smiles on their faces.
Daniell said that’s due to the good chemistry there is between them.
‘‘One of our big strengths is that we have very good energy as a team,’’ Daniell said.
‘‘We both enjoy playing with each other and having fun on court is super important.
‘‘If you’re going to go deep into a tournament you need to be enjoying yourself and it’s easy to do that with Demo out there.’’
Midway through the match, Roger Federer appeared on the next court to have a warm up for his match Dusan Lajovic later in the day.
Hundreds of people flocked to Court 10, to watch the tennis legend but Daniell said he was oblivious to what was going on.
Court nine has one of the smallest viewing areas at Wimbledon.
There are people constantly walking past it and noise spills over from the large grandstand on court 12.
But Daniell said he didn’t have any problems. ‘‘It was fine,’’ he said. ‘‘There were enough people around our court that it created a bit of a barrier from the people walking behind them.
‘‘I wasn’t put off at all and we had good support out there,’’ he said.
‘‘I could see Alex Bury was getting annoyed if they played a good point.
‘‘There weren’t too many people clapping.
‘‘But it felt good for us, there were quite a few Kiwis around the court and they always make a difference if they get loud.’’
In the next round of the gentlemen’s doubles Daniell and Demoliner play the Australians Thanasi Kokkinakis and Jordan Thompson.
Kokkinakis and Thompson are singles specialists and were given a wildcard for Wimbledon.
In the first round they defeated doubles veterans Horia Tecau and Jean-Julien Rojer, who were the No 9 seeds.
‘‘I thought that match could go either way,’’ Daniell said.