Chaotic day on cobblestone course
ROUBAIX, France — Richie Porte sat on the pavement grasping his right shoulder and grimacing in pain. A fan helped Chris Froome get going after he tumbled onto grass lining the road. Romain Bardet recovered from three punctured tires.
And they were only the highest-profile riders to face mishaps Sunday in the action-packed cobblestoned Stage9 of the Tour de France.
Every cyclist who reached the finish was covered in dust — many with their jerseys torn to shreds from crashes.
Spanish rider Gorka Izaguirre had the unusual experience of his rear wheel buckling to the point that it looked like something out of a scrap heap.
John Degenkolb won a three-man sprint to take victory in a memorable stage, while overall contender Porte crashed out of the race.
Yellow-jersey holder Greg Van Avermaet crossed second and increased his overall lead to 43 seconds ahead of Geraint Thomas, a teammate of Froome’s at Sky. Yves Lampaert of Quick-Step finished third.
“It was a pretty hectic day,” Van Avermaet said afterthe dust settled.
Added Thomas: “It was just hard all day from kilometer zero. You’ve got to be in the right position but you alsoneed the luck because it’s easy to puncture or get caughtup in something.”
Froome, a four-time champion, crossed in the main pack, 27 seconds behind, over coming a crash with 28 miles to go that saw him go over the top of teammate Gianni Moscon.
“I’m relieved to get through today and looking forward to getting into the mountains now where the real race for [general classification] will start,” Froome said.
Froome moved up to eighth overall, 1:42 behind Van Avermaet, who is not a threat in the mountains. is a day of rest.
Porte, the BMC team leader, crashed out before any of the 15 cobblestone sections. He was later diagnosed with a fractured right clavicle. He also crashed out of the 2017Tour in the ninth stage.