Running man Froome stars in Tour de Farce

Published Jul 15, 2016

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France - A lanky guy in a yellow shirt runs on an asphalt road. Marathon runner? No, Tour de France overall leader Chris Froome on the slopes of Mont Ventoux.

The Briton looked set to extend his advantage over main rival Nairo Quintana after only Richie Porte and Bauke Mollema could follow his brutal acceleration 3km from the finish line on Thursday.

But as Porte was leading the trio, the TV motorbike in front of them stopped behind other motorbikes as hundreds of spectators blocked the road and the Australian crashed into it face first and fell off his bike.

Behind him, Froome and Mollema also took a tumble but the Dutchman quickly got back on his bike. Not Froome.

“Ventoux is full of surprises. In the final kilometre we had to push hard on the brakes and the three of us hit the motorbike,” said Froome.

“There was another motorbike behind us which broke my bike.”

Talking to his sports director Nicolas Portal through radio communication, Froome started to run towards the line as Porte came past him on his bike.

“I told myself 'I don't have a bike and my car is five minutes behind with another bike, it's too far away, I'm going to run a bit,” he added.

“I had to run.”

As the service car drove up to him, Froome paused and mounted the bike he was handed, only to realise the clips did not match his shoes.

He dismounted the bike and waited a few seconds for his Team Sky car to arrive at the 400 metre banner, then completed the stage on a spare bike.

Despite losing over a minute Quintana of Colombia on the line, Froome eventually retained the yellow jersey after a decision by the race commissaries.

“It was a nightmare,” said Portal.

All ended well for Froome, however, as he was credited with the same time as Porte and Mollema and extended his lead to 47 seconds over compatriot Adam Yates.

Team Sky manager Dave Brailsford joked that Froome might have a bright future in running. “Maybe he'll run the Paris marathon next year,” he said.

The cycling season has been marred by incidents involving motorbikes. In March, Belgian Antoine Demoitie, 25, died after being run over by a race motorbike during the Gent-Wevelgem classic race.

Reuters

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