NIMES: Geraint Thomas suffered a crash on stage 16 of the Tour de France on Tuesday. The defending champion came off on a right-hander with around 130km of the 177km stage, which started and finished in Nimes, remaining.
Thomas was quickly back on his bike, sporting grazes on his left shoulder, but rejoined the peloton after spending time back at the Ineos team car. Thomas sits second in the general classification — as the Tour resumes following Monday’s rest day — 95 seconds behind Julian Alaphilippe.
Though the Welshman is in pole position should Alaphilippe fall away as expected in the Alps, four riders are bunched up within 39 seconds of him, with the Tour as wide open as it has been for many a year going into the final weekend.
Tuesday’s stage, contested in temperatures reaching 40 degrees, is anticipated to end in a sprint finish with little movement in the battle for the yellow, though Thomas’ spill illustrated the dangers always lurking on the roads.
Meanwhile, 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, saying he was “devastated” to miss out on the chance to add to his 30 career stage victories in the race. The 34-year-old has now been named in the start list for Adriatica Ionica, which starts in Venice on Thursday, alongside his long-time lieutenants Mark Renshaw and Bernie Eisel. Cavendish’s exclusion from the Tour caused ructions within Dimension Data, with the team’s head of performance Rolf Aldag having selected him only to be overruled by team principal Doug Ryder.
Ryder initially said it was his decision to leave Cavendish out, only to call it a “team decision” when speaking on the opening day of the Tour in Brussels. Those comments upset Aldag, who considered leaving the race as a result.
Cavendish has been ravaged by injury and illness over the past two years after suffering from the Epstein-Barr virus, but believed he had recovered and done the work necessary to be competitive in France — a view echoed by Aldag. Dimension Data have struggled to make an impact during the Tour without Cavendish, with a fourth place for sprinter Giacomo Nizzolo on the opening stage still their best result.