French pride restored with Demare win as Paris looms for Thomas
● Final tough mountain stage and time trial stand between Welshman and glory
A French team finally won a stage of this year’s Tour de France when Arnaud Demare of Groupama-fdj comfortably claimed a sprint victory in Pau yesterday.
After two gruelling days in the Pyrenees, Geraint Thomas was able to enjoy his seventh day in the yellow jersey during the less challenging 171-kilometre (106-mile) stage from Trie-sur-baise that featured only two minor climbs and a flat finish. Thomas remained one minute and 59 seconds ahead of Dutchman Tom Dumoulin with the Welshman’s Sky team-mate and four-time champion Chris Froome third, 2:31 behind.
Only two challenging stages remain – today’s lengthy leg through the Pyrenees, including three major climbs, then a technical 31-kilometre individual time trial tomorrow.
Sunday’s stage into Paris is traditionally one for the sprinters on the Champs Elysees, with the yellow jersey holder given an unchallenged ceremonial ride to glory.
Yesterday, Demare had time to celebrate as he crossed the line with his arms wide open ahead of fellow Frenchman Christophe Laporte.
Alexander Kristoff of Norway was third in the same time.
Many top sprinters had already left the race. Fernando Gaviria of Colombia and Dylan Groenewegen – who had each won two stages in this year’s race – called it quits during Stage 12 to Alpe d’huez. That came a day after Mark Cavendish and Marcel Kittel, who have a combined 44 Tour stage wins between them, failed to make the time cut on another mountain leg.
Demare said he was motivated by an accusation on social media from Andre Greipel, a top German sprinter, who alleged that Demare held on to his team car on the way up the gruelling Col du Portet on Stage 17.
Demare finished Wednesday’s stage second last but managed to avoid the time cut.
Greipel, who also quit on Stage 12, later apologised on Twitter, saying he had relied on “incorrect” information.
“I want to thank you for this,” Demare said. “I thought a lot about (Greipel) today. It’s not in my mindset or my philosophy to (cheat). I worked hard in the mountains before the Tour and, as a result, I made it through mountain stages when most of the sprinters did not.
“I’m still here. I did not fight for nothing. It was super important. I’m not the best in the mountains but I did not give up and today it paid off,” Demare added.
It was Demare’s second career victory in the Tour, having won Stage 4 last year. The previous French sprinter
I was the first rider down. It wasn’t as if I was picked out of a group of riders and singled out, it was just a misunderstanding. I was wearing a big rain jacket and probably didn’t look like I was a rider.”
Videos of the incident appeared to show Froome swear at the police officer, a reaction Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford said was understandable.
“I think if somebody pulls you off the bike unexpectedly, the shock of that, if you think you’re being attacked, every fair-minded person would agree your first reaction to that is going to be emotional,” he said.
Though Froome’s incident attracted more attention on social media, it was arguably less significant than the sight of a spectator attempting to grab his team-mate Geraint Thomas in the final few hundred to win two Tour sprints was Jean-patrick Nazon in 2003 and 2004.
It was also the first time French riders finished 1-2 in a metres of the stage. Thomas had raced clear of Tom Dumoulin and Primoz Roglic and was on his way to extending his lead in the yellow jersey when the incident happened.
“I could have quite easily fallen or whatever, lost a bit of time or certainly not gained the time that I did,” Thomas said. “I definitely felt it. It didn’t feel like a grab. Obviously I was going quite fast past him but it certainly moved me off my Tour sprint since 1978, when Jacques Esclassan finished ahead of Yvon Bertin in Saintamand-les-eaux.
On a warm day in southern line. It was a bit of a shock but luckily I was OK.
“At the time I didn’t know what it was,” added Thomas. “I thought it might just have been an accident but then I saw some of the pictures. Obviously it’s not good and I won’t be riding quite so close to the barriers.”
Like Froome, Thomas said he did not believe his incident was specifically related to Team Sky, who have faced France, the stage took riders through the vineyards of Madiran to the city of Pau. It was the 70th time that the Tour passed through Pau, which first hosted the race in 1930.
Five riders – Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Wanty-groupe Gobert), Mathew Hayman (Mitchelton-scott), Luke Durbridge (Mitchelton-scott), Niki Terpstra (Quick-step Floors) and Thomas Boudat (Direct Energie) – were involved in an early breakaway. The sprinters’ teams never let them get much more than two minutes ahead, and they were caught with 16.5 kilometers to go.
Otherwise, it was a very calm stage except for a minor crash involving Stage 17 winner Nairo Quintana and British rider Adam Yates. Both were able to continue without problems.
ill-feeling from elements of the crowd throughout the Tour.
“Apparently he was doing the same to Quintana,” Thomas said, referring to stage winner Nairo Quintana of Movistar. “I think it was just too much to drink, a bit of an idiot.”
Brailsford said Thomas’s clash was more concerning than Froome’s.
“They are two very different things,” he said. “The intention of the policeman was to do his job. He didn’t know it was Chris when he was going down I don’t think.
“He was just trying to do his job so I’ve got no issue with that. The issue with Geraint, when somebody tries to grab his arm, that’s unacceptable.
“I can’t imagine any fairminded person, regardless of nationality, can watch that and think it has a place in sport. But we’ve been saying that for three weeks now.”