Norway’s Alex in wonderland
TOUR DE FRANCE
ALEXANDER KRISTOFF won a sprint finish to claim the treacherous opening stage of the Tour de France.
Rain had caused havoc with a spate of crashes in Nice.
But UAE Team Emirates rider Kristoff timed his dash to the line to perfection to beat Mads Pedersen on the Promenade
Des Anglais.
The Norwegian said: “It’s a yellow jersey. I always dreamt about wearing it and you cannot dream of a better start.”
After an early breakaway, spearheaded by Michael Schar, Cyril Gautier and Fabien
Grellier, there was a crash down towards the finish line on the first circuit.
Irishman Sam Bennett was one of the riders to suffer a fall which resulted in a wheel change, while Miguel Angel Lopez needed a new bike.
As the surface became more slippy, Pavel Sivakov, who also collected a flat tyre, Benoit Cosnefroy and Christophe Laporte were also among fallers in the rain.
Nairo Quintana and Julian Alaphilippe, expected to be battling it out in the general classification, were both involved in falls as well.
The weather had cleared by the time the peleton approached the Promenade Des Anglais for the second time, but there was another mass collision. The riders face a 186km mountainous second stage today, with two passages over 1,500m.
Britain’s Lizzie Deignan won La Course with a stunning finish in Nice.
2019 champion Marianne Vos led with 400m to go but Deignan chased down the
Dutch rider to triumph with a bike throw on the line.
She said: “It’s really special.”