Froome ‘crashes’ as Gaviria takes Tour 1st stage honours
Yates, Porte struggle
FONTENAY-LECOMTE, France, July 7, (AFP): Chris Froome’s bid for a record-equalling fifth Tour de France title got off to a shaky start Saturday after a dramatic crash left him trailing first stage winner Fernando Gaviria by over one minute.
With just 6km to the finish, Froome went flying over a barrier and landed on a grassy verge, emerging seemingly unhurt as the peloton sped off to a frenetic sprint where Quick Step’s Gaviria edged Peter Sagan and Marcel Kittel to don the yellow jersey.
Froome, fellow Briton Adam Yates and Australian Richie Porte, all preTour favourites, all lost valuable seconds having been caught in a series of falls and flat tyres over the final 10km of the 201km opening stage.
For Colombian Nairo Quintana it was even worse, the Movistar man who is twice a Tour runner-up got a flat tyre 400m from the 3km cut off line and had he just carried on would have lost no time, but changed his wheel and ended up losing 1min 10sec. Stage winner and new overall leader Fernando Gaviria of Colombia celebrates wearing the yellow jersey on the podium after the first stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 201 kms (124.9 miles) with start in Noirmoutier-en-L’Ile and finish in Fontenay Le-Comte,
France on July 7. (AP) Shi to take down the world number three 18-21, 21-14 and 21-11 in their semifinal clash.
The women’s singles final will see first-seeded Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan play China’s Chen Yufei, who beat Korean Sung Ji Hyun in a hard fought semifinal 21-23, 21-18 and 23-21.