Tour blimey! Froome’s crash has him lagging
CHRIS FROOME finds himself almost a minute down just one day into the Tour de France after the Team Sky rider crashed in a chaotic finish to stage one. The reigning champion was squeezed out on a bend around 5km from the end of the 201km stage to Fontenay-leComte, which was won by Tour debutant Fernando Gaviria in a reduced sprint. Colombian Gaviria held off world champion Peter Sagan to become the first man to win his debut stage of a Tour since Fabian Cancellara in 2004 – but it was another 51 seconds before Froome crossed the line.
The four-time Tour winner was in a group that included fellow general classification hopefuls Adam Yates of Mitchelton-Scott and Richie Porte.
There was worse luck for Movistar’s Nairo Quintana, who suffered a mechanical fault close to the finish and lost 75 seconds.
That leaves them already facing a sizeable gap to those who managed to avoid trouble, with Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates), Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors), Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First-Drapac), Mikel Landa and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) among those in the front group.
Geraint Thomas was also in the front group, the only Team Sky rider not to lose time on the day.
For 190km it had been a fairly sedate stage from Noirmoutier-en-l’Ile but everything changed in the final 10km.
First French sprinter Arnaud Demare saw his hopes of a stage win ended in a tumble then Team Sky’s Egan Bernal slid off the side of the road.
Froome was the next to go, sent hurtling into a field as the road turned to the left.
The main group could not avoid trouble either, with Mark Cavendish unable to contest the sprint after his Dimension Data team-mates got caught out of position amid the carnage.