Richie Porte and Geraint Thomas, two of the top five contenders at the time, quit the Tour de France in pieces after crashing on wet and slippery descents.
Both sustained a broken collarbone, while Australian Porte also fractured his pelvis.
Three more riders quit the Tour de France after crashes on Sunday’s brutal ninth stage, while Poland’s Rafal Majka made it to the end, but then announced on Monday’s rest day that he would take no further part.
The numerous and often dramatic spills have sparked a debate about whether the Tour de France’s mountain descents are too hazardous.
Dan Martin, who crashed twice on Sunday’s final descent of the Mont du Chat climb, suggested organizer Amaury Sport Organisation is more concerned with the beauty of the race and putting on a spectacle than riders’ safety.
“They got what they wanted,” after that costly ninth stage, he said.
Nairo Quintana, three times a podium finisher on the Tour de France, said the descents are simply too dangerous.
“We lost a teammate [Alejandro Valverde] in a crash. Sunday was difficult with those of Porte and Thomas, who fell four times [during the Tour de France] — I hope they’ll recover,” Quintana said.
“I have a message to the organizers so that they think about the cyclists,” Quintana said. “They care more about the spectacle than thinking about the life of the cyclist.”
“It’s not just that they’re getting hurt, you’re leaving your life out there,” he said. “There are many crashes because of this.”
Two-time former Tour de France winner Alberto Contador was another who had a spill on Sunday.
However, the veteran has seen it all before and reacted more soberly than Quintana, pointing out that the problem on the descents was humidity due to rainfall rather than the slopes themselves.
“The slopes are the same as ever, although the rain makes them more difficult,” Contador said. “But I don’t think it’s necessary to question the course.”
Italian Fabio Aru agreed, saying it is all about the rain.
“It wasn’t a question [on Sunday] of the stage being dangerous or riders taking risks, but when it rains for the first time in a long time, it becomes difficult and dangerous,” Aru said.
At Grand Tours, much of the focus is on the mountain stages and the battle on the highest and steepest slopes, because that is often where races are won and lost.
However, descending is every part as much of a rider’s skill set as ascending, as race leader and reigning champion Chris Froome pointed out.
“I don’t specifically train for descents, but we do a lot of training in the mountains and every time you go up a climb, you have to come back down it,” he said before the Tour de France.
Descents can be spectacular and fascinating, but descending is often an ignored skill, according to former rider and current Directe Energie manager Jean-Rene Bernaudeau.
“It’s free, it doesn’t cost you any energy and so you can get a lot of benefit from it,” he said.
“You can’t learn it, you’re either born it or you’re not,” he added.
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