Unlike the forecast, the Great Belt Bridge did not bring many complications or twists, so the second stage, which was still held on Danish roads, confirmed some stereotypes about the Tour de France.
The first is related to hosting in other countries. The temporary hosts breathe with the Tour, we saw this quite loudly in Great Britain years ago, and the Danish fans flooded the route of the two opening stages.
Still calm on the bridge…The first weeks are usually very nervous and often lead to falls and injuries (Slovenian fans still remember last year’s Tour and fate Primož Roglič). Even at the beginning of the Great Belta there was a fall in which the yellow jersey was involved, the continuation was much more cautious.
… When the road narrows, there is a dropBut as soon as the riders left the bridge and were preparing the starting point for the sprint, there was a bigger fall, which also included some of the candidates for the top places in the general classification. Fortunately for them, it did not affect the overall results, as it happened within the last three kilometers (exactly 2.3 km before the finish line).
The baker injured his knucklesTwo-time winner Tadej Pogačar described the fall for RTV: “I retreated to the fence myself. I hit it with my knuckles, it’s still a little sore right now. Still, I somehow got to the finish line safely with two defects.“
O’Connor did a flip in the airHe also fell Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën Team), which won fourth place last year: “I’m fine now. I made a U-turn when it happened, I couldn’t avoid the collision. But that’s how it is in cycling, but it’s actually better than last year’s first massive fall, which happened outside the three kilometer mark and I lost quite a bit of time. Nobody wants such accidents, but they happen.“
Ineos riders are also on the groundThe fall was caused by the members of the Ineos team Grenadiers. The first one was on the ground Dana Martinez, for whom it was not clear how serious the injuries were. The eight-year-old also landed on the ground chronometer Filippo Gannameanwhile they Geraint Thomas and Roglič narrowly avoided falling.
Even the four-time winner could not avoid the fall Chris Froomewho rode to the finish line with a torn jersey.
Source: Rtvslo