After a late pileup on Nice’s iconic Promenade des Anglais, Alexander Kristoff of UAE Team Emirates won a crash-marred opening stage of the Tour de France on Saturday.
The Norwegian earned the overall race leader’s yellow jersey after having fought back from an early fall, which looked like ruling him out.
This year’s Tour set off two months later than planned due to the COVID-19 pandemic and under strict health protocols.
Photo: EPA-EFE
However, the first rain in the Mediterranean city since June turned the opening jaunt of the 21-day race into a lottery with one motorbike race official describing the road surface as an ice rink.
Key victims of the multiple crashes included French hopes Thibaut Pinot and Julian Alaphilippe, with Colombia’s Astana Pro Team captain Miguel Angel Lopez suffering a jaw-dropping downhill slide that saw him slam face-first into a traffic sign.
British team Ineos Grenadiers were left to fret over their Russian climber Pavel Sivakov, who fell twice, riding with both elbows bloodied.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Top riders, led by Team Jumbo-Visma, were shocked by the crash and a truce was called that slowed down the pace.
“That was great for me, allowed me to get right back in,” said Kristoff, who had been around six minutes adrift after his own tumble.
“This is a special Tour, even I am surprised,” said the 33-year-old who admitted his season’s targets were the coming one-day races, Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders.
Along the final flat home straight the speed had risen to about 65kph when the fall left 30 or so riders ahead alone with dozens of startled contenders sprawled.
The heavy COVID-19 atmosphere weighing on the seaside city was lightened slightly at the start when French Minister of National Education,Youth and Sports Jean-Michel Blanquer sent out a rare message of hope the Tour would make it all the way to Paris in three weeks’ time.
“You can’t rule out the cancellation of the Tour, but it has been so well prepared that the possibilities of it happening are very slim,” he said.
Prince Albert of Monaco played boules in the VIP village at the start line, but the Italian style red-roofed city was eerily empty on the day, as fans had been asked to stay away, and even the pebbled Nice beach was semi-deserted.
Local paper Nice-Matin raised eyebrows on Saturday running a picture of the Dutch team Jumbo’s leader Primoz Roglic, one of the favorites, instead of a Frenchman.
However, the key Frenchmen in the race both had days to forget.
After 14 days in the lead last year Alaphilippe was forced to fight back alone from two minutes down after a mechanical issue.
Luckless fan favorite Pinot was involved in the last of many falls as the peloton swept along the rain-sodden seafront walkway.
“That’s road racing,” Pinot’s manager Marc Madiot said.
“Nothing a good night’s sleep won’t put right,” he added after his star stormed back to the team bus refusing to speak.
Yesterday’s 186km stage also started and ended in Nice.
Burly yellow jersey Kristoff is so heavyset he was unlikely to come home with the favorites.
“I guess I’ll lose the jersey, but I’m near the end of my career and I’ve got four kids, so I’ll just try and enjoy the day,” he said.
Kylian Mbappe struck from the penalty spot as Real Madrid beat a dogged CA Osasuna 1-0 on Tuesday to make a winning start in Spanish La Liga under new coach Xabi Alonso. The France striker, last season’s European Golden Shoe winner, scored early in the second half, after he was fouled in the area by Osasuna defender Juan Cruz. It was enough to seal the points in Alonso’s first game in charge at the Santiago Bernabeu, with Madrid now unbeaten in their opening fixture of a league campaign since 2008. “You can see that Kylian wants to do even more
TO THE TOP: After securing the international title on Saturday, Team Taiwan were to face Las Vegas to potentially win their 18th Little League World Series championship A team from Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School won the Little League Baseball World Series’ international title on Saturday by defeating Aruba 1-0 in the annual baseball tournament held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Taiwan team, competing under the name Chinese Taipei, were after press time last night to face a team from Las Vegas, Nevada, which beat a team from Fairfield, Connecticut, in the US championship 8-2. Taiwan are seeking to win their first Little League Baseball World Series title since 1996. “Really haven’t taken a moment to data dump right now on Taiwan,” Nevada manager T.J. Fescher said. “They’re a
‘CATASTROPHE’: Despite losing several key forwards in the summer transfer window, Bayern were up 3-0 in the first half before Harry Kane scored a hat-trick in the second Harry Kane hit a hat-trick, Michael Olise a double and newcomer Luis Diaz also scored as Bayern Munich made a “statement” against RB Leipzig 6-0 at home in the Bundesliga season opener on Friday. Bayern’s big-money arrivals, all brought in from the Premier League across the past three seasons, were dominant as the Bavarians begun their title defense in style. Olise scored twice in the first half, either side of a Diaz strike. Not to be outdone, Kane scored three goals in the second half — with two assists coming from Diaz, to bring Bayern’s total to 6-0. Kane told the Bundesliga
Kevin de Bruyne is to lead SSC Napoli’s Serie A title defense today when he makes his full debut at promoted US Sassuolo, but the champions head into the new season rocked by a long-term injury to star striker Romelu Lukaku. De Bruyne was, alongside aging icon Luka Modric, the big new name to arrive in Italy this summer and fans were hoping his linkup with Belgium teammate Lukaku would push Napoli to success both at home and in their return to the UEFA Champions League. The 34-year-old has suffered from hamstring injuries which caused him to miss significant chunks of the
RSS