The overnight race referees’ decision was that the crash in the sprint was the fault of Tom Veelers, who also hit the deck. Cavendish was ruled to have been not at fault and (despite constant internet debate and attacks) that should be the end of it. It seemed not to have been for at least one spectator and during his Time Trial the sprinter was whistled and had urine thrown at him. Whatever your thoughts on the crash (and mine, after watching the footage, were inclined to put the blame on Veelers as well), this just doesn’t seem acceptable at all in a sport where much of the excitement is from the access spectators get to the race and the immediate contact they can get with riders.
Aside from that, the stage’s early top time was set by TT World Champion, Tony Martin, with no one able to get close to him through the afternoon. Until Froome, the last man on the road, went through the first time-check a second faster. At the second check he’d extended that lead to two seconds and seemed to be motoring towards not just putting significant time into his rivals, but also snatching the win from Martin. Luckily for the World Champion Froome’s final time was 12 seconds off the marker he had set, but the yellow jersey still put significant chunks of time into his GC rivals, finishing the day leading the Tour by 3 minutes 25 over Valverde.
Talking, as I was earlier, about unacceptable things, there were reports of this crash in Kingston. The driver, who has just clipped a cyclist, been distracted when they shouted at him, and then mown down pedestrians and hit a bus, thinks that cyclists should pay more attention on the roads…
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