WRONG GER Tour king Thomas crashes yet again in pile-up a mile from finish
CAV BOSS RYDER A ‘COWARD’
GERAINT THOMAS crashed again on his first day wearing the No.1 bib at the Tour de France – but this time the fall guy was unhurt.
Britain’s defending champion was brought down in a chaotic finish a mile from the finish of the 121-mile Grand Depart here but saw the funny side and joked: “Typical!”
Thomas was quickly back in the saddle after the pileup left him with nowhere to go near a crash barrier.
The Prince of Wheels had been forced to abandon his warm-up Tour of Switzerland after a crash left him needing stitches to a gash above his right eye.
Six years ago, he broke his pelvis in an almighty pile-up in Corsica – but still managed to ride for 2,000 miles in support of Chris Froome’s f irst Tour de France triumph.
Thomas brushed off the superficial damage yesterday and immediately turned his attention to today’s time trial, where Team Ineos have their eyes on the stage win.
He said: “It’s typical, but I’m fine though. I was going pretty slow by the time I hit the riders in front and I just toppled over, so it’s all good.
“I gave myself enough space to avoid the actual crash in front of me, but I just had nowhere to go at the barriers.
“The main thing is I didn’t do any damage, the bike took the hit and I just toppled over. But it was good to get back in the groove with the boys – we’ve started on the front foot and the first week is always about coming through it unscathed. Obviously we’ll go 100 per cent to try and win the time trial – there are lots of good teams who will be thinking the same way, but we’ll see what we can do.”
Fortified by Froome’s return home from hospital, after the four-time champion broke bones in his neck, hip, ribs and leg in a horrific crash last month, Team Ineos rode impressively towards the front of the peloton.
In a photo finish, Dutchman Mike Teunissen took the leader’s fabled maillot jaune when he pipped Peter Sagan on the line. Teunissen had been assigned as a leadout man for his Team Jumbo-Visma sprint specialist Dylan Groenewegen – but when Groenewegen went down, his compatriot seized the opportunity to snatch a stage win, and said: “I can’t believe it.
“We were working months to bring Dylan a stage victory and the leader’s Yellow Jersey, but then it disappears when he goes down in a crash with one-and-a-half kilometres to go.
“But I thought, ‘ I’m still fresh, I can try’ – and when everyone was dying near the end, I was catching Peter Sagan and I caught him on the line.” aXED sprint legend Mark Cavendish’s wife Peta has branded Team Dimension Data boss Doug Ryder a “coward” after leaving him out of the Tour de France.
The Manx Missile’s missus is outraged britain’s 30-times stage winner (above) will not be able to trim Eddy Merckx’s all-time record of 34.
Ryder said: “Mark is a legend of the race. We selected a team based on the route and how hard it is this year. It was a team decision.”
but Dimension Data head of performance Rolf aldag contradicted Ryder and Peta tweeted: “There is a fair amount of fiction in that statement. Unfortunately this is no surprise. The truth always comes out in the end. Cowards can’t hide forever.”
aldag said: “It’s within my responsibility to select a team – I called eight names and Mark was included.
“but the team owner has the right to overrule me, which he did.”