Kittel wins 11th stage but Froome maintains lead
MOVISTAR CONVINCE AMADOR TO REVERSE PULLOUT DECISION
erman rider Marcel Kittel claimed the 11th stage of the Tour de France in a sprint finish yesterday, taking his tally to five stage wins since the start of the race.
Ahead of two hard days in the Pyrenees mountains, Chris Froome finished in the main pack to retain the race leader’s yellow jersey.
A sprint specialist, Kittel has now won 14 Tour de France stages in five appearances at cycling’s showcase event, a record for a German rider.
The stage took the peloton on a flat, 203.5-kilometre run from Eymet to Pau in southwestern France.
Amador quits
Earlier, Costa Rican Andrey Amador decided to quit the race in the early hours yesterday, only to be “convinced” hours later by his Movistar team to continue.
The 30-year-old teammate of Tour contender Nairo Quintana took to social media in the night to announce he would be pulling out of the race, but it seems his team hadn’t been consulted.
“Tomorrow I’m putting an end to bearing this pain. Go on lads,” he wrote on Twitter, referring to the pain he’s been suffering in his knee since crashing on the second stage more than a week ago.
“It’s difficult but we’re leaving the Tour with a knee problem,” he’d added on Instagram.
But he hadn’t told his team, who were stunned to discover the news, yet little willing to accept it.
“I was also surprised to learn he was quitting,” Movistar’s sports director Jose Luis Arrieta said.
“Andrey had said he was overcoming the pain, but he couldn’t and that he’d woken up due to the fierce pain in his knee.
“It might have been bad posture, but then with treatment from the physios and the osteopath, he’s feeling better and is going to see if things return to normal during the stage.”
Arriesta insisted wasn’t difficult to him” to carry on.
“If he announced that “it convince
he
was quitting it’s because he really was in pain,” he added.
Movistar could ill afford another rider pulling out after Quintana’s chief mountain support Alejandro Valverde quit during the opening stage after breaking his kneecap in a crash.
Quintana had a poor first week at the Tour and is down in eighth overall, at 2min 13sec off race leader Chris Froome. 1. Marcel Kittel (Germany / Quick-Step Floors) 4:34:27”/s 2. Dylan Groenewegen (Netherlands / LottoNL-Jumbo) ST 3. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway / Team Dimension Data) 4. Michael Matthews (Australia / Team Sunweb) 5. Daniel McLay (Britain / Fortuneo-Oscaro) 6. Davide Cimolai (Italy / FDJ) 7. Andre Greipel (Germany / Lotto-Soudal) 8. Nacer Bouhanni (France / Cofidis, Solutions Credits) 9. Ben Swift (Britain / UAE Team Emirates) 10. Danilo Wyss