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Chris Froome takes up new sport in bizarre Mont Ventoux finish

Written by Zach Overholt
16 Comments
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After the announcement of a shortened climb up Mont Ventoux for today’s stage 12 finish due to high winds, many fans were worried that the stage would lose some of the excitement. While we won’t spoil the results for anyone who has the race waiting for them on their DVR, we will say that there is plenty of excitement. It’s also extremely bizarre. Apparently after fans got too close to a video motorbike, the motorcycle’s pilot had to slam on the brakes which then caused a chain reaction pile up with Richie Porte, Chris Froome, and Bauke Mollema.

All of a sudden, the Tour’s cameras shift to a lanky Froome in full kit, running up Mont Ventoux. His bike was broken in the crash and without a team car nearby, he just took off running (which may or may not be illegal during the race). At one point he was given a neutral service bike from the Mavic car, but after appearing to struggle with the gears and pedals, he pulled to the side and waited for a replacement bike. Wild.

 
Zach Overholt
5,729 articles

Zach Overholt is the Editor in Chief of Bikerumor. He has been writing about what’s new in the bicycle world for 12+ years. Prior to that, Zach spent many years in the back of a bicycle shop building and repairing nearly every type of bike, while figuring out how to (occasionally) ride them.

Based in Ohio, Zach is now slowly introducing a new generation to cycling and still trying to figure out how to fit the most rides into a busy schedule as a new dad.

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16 Comments
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bikerjay
bikerjay
8 years ago

#marginalgains

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Greg
Greg
8 years ago

Yakety Sax

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lovethebike
lovethebike
8 years ago

OK, so there’s one accident involving a chainring cut on someone’s leg who claims it was from a disc brake, and disc brakes are gone. But, a motorcycle and fans on the race course cause yet another accident, and they get to stay. Time for drone camera footage and major fines for spectators who interfere with the race.

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myke2241
myke2241
8 years ago
Reply to  lovethebike

I agree but drones are equally dangerous. I think this really comes down to crowd control. Which has been more of a issue then motor bikes. It’s just not reported as a issue

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AlanM
AlanM
8 years ago
Reply to  lovethebike

Under what law are you going to fine the fans? And what evidence are you going to use to figure out who to fine? Good luck with that one.

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rw
rw
8 years ago

…

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Haromania
Haromania
8 years ago

Why do I feel like I’ve seen this movie called the TDF before? Seems like I saw the exact same thing around 1998-2005. Weird.

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bikeduder
bikeduder
8 years ago

The Tour organizer, ASO, really looks to have things together this year.

I think Chris was a bit out of line running up the hill without his machine and not waiting for a bike – it certainly appears to be against the rules and would normally be disqualifying. How long would it really have taken to get him a bike??

Without a doubt, it’s one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen at the Tour.

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Matt
Matt
8 years ago
Reply to  bikeduder

If you watch the race you can see exactly how long it took them to get him a bike. Hence the delay and Froome originally being relegated to 6th place 53 sec back in the overall. That being said, his running is legal if he is running with his bike. Like pretty much any other bike race.

I assume your first sentence was meant to be sarcastic. ASO dropped the ball hard on crowd control today.

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Shanghaied
Shanghaied
8 years ago

Well, Froome was born in Kenya, so running at altitude should be right up his alley.

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Dan N.
Dan N.
8 years ago

I can see how it is a challenge for the neutral service cars to stock multiple bike sizes with multiple pedal styles. Unfortunately, they just grabbed the bicycle on the end because it was the quickest to get to (wrong size and worst yet, wrong pedal style). I can’t imagine what was going through Froome’s mind at the moment he started to run.

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AlanM
AlanM
8 years ago
Reply to  Dan N.

Normally they would swap pedals from the rider’s original bike over to the neutral bike. But in this case, Froome had left his bike behind so this wasn’t an option.

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Mick
Mick
8 years ago
Reply to  AlanM

(Mavic) Neutral support does carry the most common pedal types (including flats) so they can accomodate any rider, but, in this case there was not time to consider this.

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Pete
Pete
8 years ago

I’ve advocated for years a criminal misdemeanor to interfere with a professional bicycle race in any physical manner, including but not limited to touching a rider or bike, spitting, object tossing, placing tacks, creating an obstruction, etc etc etc. But this nevers happens with the well-behaved French, does it, so I guess they need no such law.

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DRC
DRC
8 years ago

@leavethebike I totally agree. Those fans today we’re nuts. Should have been a lot more barriers. And cmon BR, “we won’t spoil it for you” but we’ll tell you every single thing that happened except who won the stage.

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RED
RED
8 years ago

I agree, prefer BR to not include sporting event news …

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