Thomas survives fall to stay second as the battle for Tour hots up
CALEB Ewan won stage 16 of the Tour de France as Geraint Thomas overcame a minor crash to retain second place overall.
Lotto-Soudal’s Ewan took his second stage victory in a sprint finish as he held off DeceuninckQuick Step’s Elia Viviani and Jumbo-Visma’s Dylan Groenewegen at the end of the 177km stage which started and finished in Nimes.
Defending champion Thomas hit the deck with around 130km of the stage to go on the inside of a right-hand bend, but was quickly back in the peloton after dropping back to the Ineos team car for a once over.
It was the Team Ineos rider’s third crash in this year’s Tour and his fourth fall since he crashed heavily in the Tour of Switzerland in mid-June.
However, as in Brussels and St Etienne, the defending champion escaped with only minor cuts and scrapes on his left side and, after a bike change, was soon paced back into the peloton by his Ineos teammates.
Afterwards, the Welshman said: “I just took off an old scar, so there was obviously some new skin bleeding. I had one hand on the bars and the gears jumped and jammed and I got thrown off my bike around the corner.
“I knew the race wasn’t on, so it was just a case of getting back into the group – but of course it was frustrating. It was such a freak incident to be honest.”
Astana’s Jakob Fuglsang was not so lucky as his Tour was ended by a crash inside the last 30km, the Dane ultimately climbing into an ambulance and out of a race in which he had sat ninth overall.
They were rare moments of drama until the end of a stage which had been raced in soaring temperatures of around 40 degrees in the south of France.
A five-man breakaway was given little leeway though not reeled in until the final three kilometres as the sprint trains moved up.
Thomas crossed the line with a few bumps and grazes but still second in the general classification, 95 seconds behind Deceuninck-Quick Step’s Julian Alaphilippe.
Though the Welshman is in pole position should Alaphilippe fall away as expected in the Alps, four riders are bunched within 39 seconds of him, with the Tour as wide open as it has been for many a year going into the final stages.
General classification after stage 16:
1. Julian Alaphilippe (Fra Deceuninck Quick-Step) 64hrs 57mins 30secs; 2. Geraint Thomas (GB/Team Ineos) +1min 35secs; 3. Steven Kruijswijk (Ned/JumboVisma) +1min 47secs; 4. Thibaut Pinot (Fra/Groupama-FDJ) +1min 50secs; 5. Egan Bernal (Col/Team Ineos) +2mins 2secs; 6. Emanuel Buchmann (Ger/Bora-Hansgrohe) +2mins 14secs; 7. Mikel Landa (Spa/Movistar) +4mins 54secs; 8. Alejandro Valverde (Spa/Movistar) +5mins; 9. Rigoberto Uran (Col/EF Education First) +5mins 33secs; 10. Richie Porte (Aus/Trek-Segafredo) +6mins 30secs.
■ Mark Cavendish is due to return to racing in Italy this week following his Tour de France snub.
The Manxman was controversially left out of Team Dimension Data’s eight-man team for the ongoing Tour.
The 34-year-old has now been named in the start list for Adriatica Ionica, which starts in Venice tomorrow.