Cobbled Carnage

Yesterday’s stage was anticipated with trepidation by much of the peloton as the Paris-Roubaix cobbles threatened, on a wet day.

Stage five of the #TDF is certainly going to be interesting... "@talis82 : Diluvia... pic.twitter.com/bJX32QV4bu”

— Team Sky (@TeamSky) July 9, 2014

Insane. RT @badencooke: Wet cobbles in the middle of the road at 50 m to go. Madness pic.twitter.com/84x5u9mdpE

— Mikkel Condé v2.0 (@mrconde) July 9, 2014

Even with two pavé sections removed due to the weather it was a day of carnage as riders crashed off the slippery cobbles. I probably don’t need to tell you that the biggest casualty was Chris Froome, who crashed twice before even reaching the cobbles on top of injuries that he picked up on Tuesday and eventually abandoned the race.

As he was carried off in a team car the race carried on and the tough conditions produced a stunning stage with Nibali and Sagan working hard and the eventual winner coming in a hard-man’s move from Lars Boom. Overall the big winner was Nibali who gained a good two minutes on his GC rivals, with Sagan also well placed. With one of his main rivals out of the race it’s hard to see how the Italian could now lose his position. We know he can climb well and he’s put some significant distance between himself and Contador at 2’37” behind. In fact Sky can take some hope from Richie Porte’s position in eighth and 1’54” back, making him Nibali’s closest GC rival in my book, ahead of Talansky, Valverde and Costa and Van Garderen.

The best-placed Briton in the race is now Geraint Thomas who will be working for Porte, at 14th. Otherwise it’s like we’re back in the 90s looking for Brits to support and have to go as far as 110th to find Simon Yates over 26 minutes adrift.

Considering the circumstances and his performance in Paris-Roubaix earlier in the year, it now seems perhaps short-sighted not to take Bradley Wiggins to the race as a back-up, especially given the recurrence of Froome’s poor bike handling that we’ve seen here. One commenter put it better:

Hmmm, if only Sky had a former Tour winner who was also proven on the cobbles... Oh well.

— Bike Snob NYC (@bikesnobnyc) July 9, 2014

So a sprinter who crashed out at the first test and a defending champion who made it not much further have left the only real British success as the atmosphere on stages one to three in this year’s Tour.

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