{"id":9525,"date":"2016-07-15T08:02:59","date_gmt":"2016-07-15T15:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/on-bastille-day-storming-fans-spark-chaos-at-tour-de-france\/"},"modified":"2016-07-15T08:02:59","modified_gmt":"2016-07-15T15:02:59","slug":"on-bastille-day-storming-fans-spark-chaos-at-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/on-bastille-day-storming-fans-spark-chaos-at-tour-de-france\/","title":{"rendered":"On Bastille Day, storming fans spark chaos at Tour de France"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONT VENTOUX, France <\/strong>\u2014 On Bastille Day, fans created havoc at the Tour de France like never before.<\/p>\n

Storming the road on France\u2019s national day, the crowd prompted a crash involving race leader Chris Froome and it wasn\u2019t until hours after the wacky 12th stage concluded that organizers decided the British rider could keep the yellow jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cMont Ventoux always throws up something different and today was no exception,\u201d Froome said. \u201cYou always have to expect the unexpected at the Tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a complete embarrassment for cycling\u2019s biggest race, Richie Porte crashed headfirst into a motorbike carrying a TV camera, and Froome, who was right behind his former teammate, also hit the pavement in the final kilometer on the wind-shortened climb up legendary Mont Ventoux.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe crowd was just all on the road, and a motorbike stopped right in front of us and we had nowhere to go,\u201d Porte said. \u201cThe next minute, I went straight over the top of the motorbike. It was just a mess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, Froome punched the face of a spectator who got too close to the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI agree that you come to the race, you have a good time, but you don\u2019t need to be running beside the riders, you don\u2019t need to hitting riders, pushing riders,\u201d said Porte, who was being examined for possible injuries. \u201cThings have got to change, and I can\u2019t believe there weren\u2019t barriers there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wind prevented organizers from erecting the usual barriers at the end of most stages, Tour director Christian Prudhomme explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took an exceptional decision because of this exceptional situation, an incident that might have never happened before in 100 years,\u201d Prudhomme said. \u201cThere will be an investigation to find out why the TV motorbike was blocked and the riders fell.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the crash, Froome threw his mangled bike aside and began running up the road. He eventually was given a small yellow race assistance bike before his team car was finally able to provide him with a suitable substitute.<\/p>\n

All of Froome\u2019s main rivals crossed ahead of him, and Froome shook his head in disbelief when he finally reached the finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really unfortunate what happened in the last couple of kilometers,\u201d Froome said, \u201cbut ultimately common sense has prevailed and the commissaires have come to the right decision, so I would like to thank them for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Froome ran through the crowds, he attempted to communicate with his team via radio but the crowds prevented the Team Sky car from reaching him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a nightmare,\u201d Sky sports director Nicolas Portal said. \u201cIt took up to two minutes for him to get a spare bike but the pedals did not suit him. … I can\u2019t understand how so many people were allowed there. It was mayhem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the crash, Froome dropped most of his rivals apart from Porte and Bauke Mollema.<\/p>\n

The race jury eventually decided to give Froome and Porte the same stage time as Mollema.<\/p>\n

Still, Froome was booed and whistled at when he put the yellow jersey back on during the podium ceremony.<\/p>\n

Froome, who is seeking his third Tour title in four years, increased his overall lead to 47 seconds ahead of fellow British rider Adam Yates.<\/p>\n

Two-time runner-up Nairo Quintana was third, 54 seconds behind, and Mollema moved up to fourth, 56 seconds back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t want to take the jersey like this. I\u2019m happy with the decision,\u201d said Yates, who was initially given the race leadership according to preliminary results. \u201c(Froome) is the rightful owner of the yellow jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf anyone was in the same situation they would feel the same. Nobody wants to take the yellow jersey like that. You want to take it with your legs. There\u2019s not many sports where the fans can get this close to the athletes like this. It is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas De Gendt won the stage after getting into an early breakaway and easily sprinting past fellow Belgian Serge Pauwels on the steep slopes of Ventoux.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were too many people in the last kilometer,\u201d De Gendt said. \u201cThere was not even a place for one motorbike. They should do something about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the wind at nearly 80 mph on top of the \u201cGiant of Provence,\u201d organizers moved the finish line 3\u00bd miles down the road to the Chalet Reynard.<\/p>\n

It was still a grueling six-mile climb featuring several sections with gradients exceeding 10 percent.<\/p>\n

It was De Gendt\u2019s first career stage win in the Tour. He finished third in the 2012 Giro d\u2019Italia.<\/p>\n

Froome was the stage winner when the Tour previously scaled Ventoux\u2019s barren, 6,263-foot peak in 2013.<\/p>\n

Ventoux was also the site of an epic contest between Lance Armstrong and Marco Pantani in 2000, and where British rider Tom Simpson died in 1967 from a combination of amphetamines and alcohol.<\/p>\n

Now, another memorable chapter has been added to Ventoux lore.<\/p>\n

The race\u2019s first time trial comes on Friday with a hilly 23-mile leg from Bourg-Saint-Andeol to La Caverne du Pont-D\u2019Arc, where Froome will be looking to add to his lead in calmer circumstances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONT VENTOUX, France \u2014 On Bastille Day, fans created havoc at the Tour de France like never before. Storming the road on France\u2019s national day, the crowd prompted a crash involving race leader Chris Froome and it wasn\u2019t until hours after the wacky 12th stage concluded that organizers decided the British rider could keep the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-9525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9525\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9525"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}