REEKIE HITS PEAK
ATHLETICS EUROPEAN U23 CHAMPIONSHIPS
Britain’s reigning champion was relieved to roll home in the peloton after a stress-free day as South Africa’s Daryl Impey claimed his maiden stage win.
Thomas finished 16 minutes behind Impey, still fifth overall and 72 seconds behind leader Julian Alaphilippe, 24 hours after the smash which sent him over the handlebars before breaking team-mate Gianni Moscon’s bike in two.
Canadian rider Woods last night accepted responsibility for the crash after sliding into a downhill corner, leaving the Team Ineos leader nowhere to go.
Woods (circled), whose downhill bike handling has been questioned before, admitted: “It was my fault. If I was Ineos, if I was him, I certainly wouldn’t be too happy with Mike Woods right now. They have a reason to be upset.
“That being said, every pro cyclist has made that mistake. Geraint Thomas did that a couple of years ago when he went straight off the road and (Chris) Froome’s done it.
“It was just crap I did it and it ended up affecting someone else’s race, so I’m not happy about that.”
Thomas accepted Woods’ apology and shrugged: “It’s just one of those things. These crashes happen. It wasn’t like Woodsy meant to crash.
“They do seem to happen a lot to me, but I’ve been fortunate there’s been no real damage.”
Team Ineos closed down a late attempt by home-town hero Romain Bardet to claw back lost ground in the general classification on the 103-mile run from St Etienne to Brioude.
Thomas even had time to tweet his support for Roger Federer as the astonishing Wimbledon final lasted longer than Le Tour’s stage.
He said: “You don’t want to give them any time back if you don’t have to. The boys controlled it really well and closed down that last attack pretty quickly.
“Other than that, it was a pretty stress-free day and quite a nice ride in the end.
“In the back of your mind, you still need to be fuelling well and focusing on the big days to come – but one more day and we get a nice little rest day.”
Impey is the first South African to win a stage on Le Tour for 12 years – although he did wear the leader’s Yellow Jersey in Montpellier in 2013 – on a day which was likely to favour a breakaway.
He said: “I have been in quite a few breakaways and to finally nail it today is a dream come true.” 7 M Soler (Spa) ......................................... +21s 8 I Garcia (Spa) ................................. +1m 50s 9 S Clarke (Aus) ........................... same time JEMMA REEKIE stepped out of Laura Muir’s shadow to complete a stunning golden double at the European Under-23 Championships.
The 21-year-old Scot (right) is a training partner of Muir, the senior European champion, in a group coached by Andy Young.
And in Sweden yesterday she showed she is cut from the same cloth by adding the 1500 metres title to the 800m she won 24 hours before.
“I just wanted it so bad,” said Reekie.
Arthur Fagg scored an unbeaten 202 in Kent’s second innings against Essex. He had made 244 in the first innings and became the first man to score double centuries in both innings of a match. 1983: Denis Durnian established a record score for nine holes in the Open Championship when he shot 28 in the second round at Royal Birkdale. 1989: Laurie Cunningham, the second black footballer to play for England after Viv Anderson, was killed in a car crash near Madrid aged 33.
2005: Jack Nicklaus, the winner of 18 majors, completed the last competitive round of his career at the Open at St Andrews.
2014: World Cup-winning England centre Mike Tindall announced he was retiring from rugby.
2018: France won the World Cup for a second time after beating Croatia 4-2 in the final in Moscow.