Thomas in wars after Tour crash
Defending champion ‘fine’ but Cavendish row grows
GERAINT THOMAS survived a multiple rider pile-up in the opening stage of the Tour de France, coming down with a group of riders inside the final three kilometres but emerging relatively unscathed as up ahead Mike Teunissen unexpectedly sprinted clear of Peter Sagan to become the first Dutch rider to wear the Tour’s yellow jersey in 30 years.
Both Thomas and Team Ineos co-leader Egan Bernal were delayed by the crash but, as it occurred within the final three kilometres, neither lost any time to their rivals for final victory.
The defending Tour champion was later described as ‘fine’ by his team, but crashing again, so soon after his recent fall in the Tour of Switzerland, on the eve of the crucial team time trial stage, is hardly ideal.
Teunissen’s win was unexpected as all eyes were on his team-mate and another crash victim, Dylan Groenewegen, who was his JumboVisma team’s designated sprinter.
‘Our plan was ruined when Groenewegen crashed,’ Teunissen said. ‘I couldn’t clearly see if he went down but when I realised he did, I was still able to sprint. I hope Dylan smiles as I replaced him for the win.’
As Mark Cavendish (right) watched the sprint from afar, his Italian teammate Giacomo Nizzoli, took fourth but it was not enough to distract from the chaos surrounding his Dimension Data team.
Cavendish’s team boss Doug Ryder was earlier labelled a ‘coward’ by the Tour star’s wife after he claimed that the 30-time stage winner’s omission from his Dimension Data team for this year’s race was a ‘team decision’ rather than his own.
‘Mark is a legend of the race and it
is hard that he’s not here,’ the South African said at the start of stage one in Brussels. ‘We had selected a team based on the course and the route.’
‘There was a difference of opinion,’ said Ryder, ‘but it was a team decision and our high-performance team was involved in that.’
However, Peta Cavendish retaliated by tweeting that there was ‘a fair amount of fiction in that statement’ and later adding ‘the truth always comes out in the end’.
Meanwhile, the team’s sports director Rolf Aldag openly contradicted Ryder, saying: ‘It’s no secret that I wanted him (Cavendish) here. ‘It’s my remit to select the team, which I did. I wrote down eight names and Mark was included. And the team owner (Ryder) has the right to overrule me, which he did. I was probably one of the very few that had physically seen him.
‘I followed him when I was in Slovenia and I saw a Mark Cavendish who was about 300 per cent better than in 2016. ‘I thought he was definitely in a good way and it was worth taking him.
‘It’s not about the media, it’s not about just giving him another Tour de France — I thought for the stages that we have in this race, that he was a good choice.’