Bevin changes tack after injury to team leader
Patrick Bevin has been forced to adjust his game plan for the remainder of the Tour de France after BMC Racing leader Richie Porte crashed out of the race on a chaotic ninth stage.
Bevin was controlling the tempo at the front of the peloton when he heard through the radio that Porte, a rider who BMC Racing had built their entire team around, had broken his collarbone and would be withdrawing from the race.
He said it was a big blow for the team. Although another teammate, Greg Van Avermaet, has spent a week in the yellow jersey and currently leads the general classification standings by 43 seconds, he was expected to lose it on the first mountain stage held overnight. It was in the mountains where Porte would have looked to make his move.
‘‘It definitely changes the outlook a bit,’’ Bevin said on the Tour’s first rest day.
‘‘It’s a weird thing to hear when you’ve built your whole Tour around a guy to then have it just stop. There’s a moment where you think ‘man, we’ve put some resources into this’ but then you’ve got to change it on the fly. You’ve got to just play with the cards you are dealt.’’
But Porte’s misfortune could open the door for Bevin to have a crack at another stage victory, with the stage 20 individual time trial looming as his best opportunity. Bevin has already registered one stage win, after BMC Racing team triumphed in the stage three team time trial.
‘‘It’s an option for sure. For me it’s my big goal at the back end of this race.
‘‘Obviously you don’t get back the energy you’ve already used so you start a little bit behind and it’s a very tough time trial but I think I’ll be looking at the last two weeks for stages and I think that would be opportunity for me to have a go.’’
Porte was not the only rider to experience a mishap on the treacherous cobblestones, with Kiwi Dion Smith fracturing his thumb and requiring stitches in his hand after taking a tumble. Chris Froome also hit the deck while another one of Bevin’s team-mates, Tejay van Garderen, lost close to six minutes due to various mechanical issues.