Richie Porte crashed into a motorbike in the final kilometers of Thursday’s ride up Mont Ventoux at the Tour de France, causing a chain reaction that left yellow jersey holder Chris Froome without a bike, forcing him to run towards the finish line up the iconic climb.
The Tour de France leader broke his bike in a crash and had to run up a mountain
One of the craziest things in the long, crazy history of the Tour de France just happened.
.@LeTour Leader, @ChrisFroome is forced to leave his bike behind and run after massive pile-up #TDF2016 https://t.co/gsBgOJ967n
Froome was on pace to strengthen his lead atop the general classification before the crash. Provisionally, Adam Yates became the new leader of the Tour de France, but the powers that be rightly allowed Froome to keep the yellow jersey and gave him time commensurate with how he was riding.
The rules are pretty clear that riders can’t advance without their bike. Froome could be penalized for running, though it’d be sympathetic of the Tour de France organizers to cut him some slack given the circumstances. His bike was broken, and the service bike he was given to try to finish the race was comically undersized. There will certainly be a lot of discussion tonight in all corners.
This is one of the weirdest things to ever happen in the history of a long, weird race. Reminder: The Tour de France is dumb and great.
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