Controversy on Mont Ventoux as Froome extends lead despite running final kilometre

Belgium’s Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) had already won the shortened stage to Chalet Reynard – six kilometres below the wind-ravaged summit of Mont Ventoux – and secured the polka dot jersey in doing so when the latest controversy involving an official race motor vehicle turned the race on its head.

Fans flocking to the fabled Giant of Provence on Bastille Day encroached on the road in the final kilometre, forcing a TV motorbike to come to a sudden standstill while filming a select group containing Froome, his former team-mate Richie Porte (BMC) and Dutchman Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo).

All three riders careered into the motorbike, with Porte colliding face first before bringing down the others in a tangle of limbs and carbon. But while the Australian and Mollema were able to remount and complete the final kilometre to Chalet Reynard, Froome’s bike was damaged when hit by a second motorbike forcing the yellow jersey to panic and start running through the throng of spectators.

After what seemed like an eternity, Froome received a neutral bike from the Mavic support car but struggled on this unfamiliar steed as rival Nairo Quintana, who had earlier been unable to keep up with Froome’s fast pace, rode past in a group that also included Yates, who was provisionally declared the new race leader.

Once back on a replacement Pinarello from his Team Sky support car, Froome was paced over the finish line in utter disbelief to come home 1:40 behind tenth-place Mollema – the first of the GC favourites to complete the 178-kilometre stage from Montpellier.

Initial results saw defending champion Froome drop to sixth in the general classification 53 seconds down on Orica-BikeExchange’s Yates. But the race jury took a bold decision to reinstate Froome at the summit, the Team Sky rider actually extending his lead to 47 seconds over fellow Briton Yates, whose time in yellow lasted less than half an hour.

Both Froome and Porte were awarded the same time as Mollema, who himself initially rose above Quintana to third place on GC before more adjustments from the race jury saw the Dutchman drop to fourth at 56 seconds. Movistar’s Quintana, who had twice attacked in the forested section of the climb before being dropped after Froome’s sudden acceleration, now trails his rival by 54 seconds ahead of Friday’s all-important individual time trial.

Belgian’s De Gendt beat compatriot Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data) in a sprint to the line after a 13-man break had built up a lead of almost 20 minutes through windy Provence ahead of the deciding climb.

Spaniard Dani Navarro (Cofidis) was third at 14 seconds while veteran Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie) was the first Frenchman across the line on Bastille Day – taking fifth place behind Dutchman Stef Clement (IAM Cycling).

Break: A group of 13 riders broke clear shortly after the start in Montpellier after Frenchman Adrien Petit (Direct Energie) put in the first obligatory dig in front of the home fans celebrating 14th July in the sunshine.

Petit did not manage to force himself into the break, but his French team-mates Sylvain Chavanel and Bryan Coquard did, along with Bertjan Lindeman and Sep Vanmarcke (LottoNL-Jumbo), Stef Clement (IAM), Serge Pauwels and Daniel Teklehaimanot (Dimension Data), André Greipel and Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Iljo Keisse (Etixx-Quick Step), Chris Anker Sorensen (Fortuneo-Vita Concept), Dani Navarro and Cyril Lemoine (Cofidis).

Six riders rode in pursuit for over 100 kilometres but with the peloton taking things easy ahead of the task in hand, the chasers found themselves very much caught in no-man’s land before eventually succumbing to the inevitable and giving up.

The gap crept above 18 minutes for the leaders before the peloton split into echelons in the crosswinds causing a scare for the green jersey Peter Sagan (Tinkoff), Frenchmen Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), and a whole host of riders. Barguil was able to rejoin the main pack but Pinot never regained contact – and would concede the polka dot jersey to the eventual stage winner.

Among the GC favourites there were a series of worries for the Italian Vuelta a Espana champion Fabio Aru (Astana), who needed to change bikes three times before the race arrived at two lower-category climbs ahead of the showpiece ascent.

Australian Simon Gerrans (Orice-BikeExchange) crashed on the front of the pack, causing Team Sky duo Ian Stannard and Luke Rowe to hit the deck with 35 kilometres remaining. The incident spurred Froome into taking a sneaky call of nature, and with his rivals conceding to the unwritten rules of fair play and sitting up, the yellow jersey’s team-mates were able to return to the fold.

The slowing of pace saw the leaders increase their advantage to nine minutes having been brought within seven minutes of the pack – and it was the unlikely figure of Greipel, the German national champion and a man not feted for his climbing ability, who edged ahead of the escapees at the town of Bedoin, the gateway to Ventoux.

Turning point: By now we had a race within a race, with the break fighting for the stage spoils and the GC favourites battling for the yellow jersey. The lead group splintered as Navarro and Pauwels rode clear with De Gendt in pursuit, while further down the road the main pack was slimming down thanks to the high tempo set by Sky’s Wout Poels and Sergio Henao.

Movistar made the first move with an attack from Alejandro Valverde which paved the way for two surged from Nairo Quintana. But on each occasion Poels, winner of Liege-Bastogne-Liege in April, was able to reel in the aggressors like fishes on a line.

Ahead the battle for the stage was equally fascinating as the two Belgians – De Gendt and Pauwels – traded blows with Navarro before combining to drop the Spaniard with three kilometres remaining. With fans – too many fans, it seemed – out in their droves, the scene was set for a finale which will never be forgotten.

Finale: Navarro returned to his Belgian rivals with one kilometre remaining but the effort required to bridge the gap rendered him null and void in the sprint for victory. Pauwels was bidding to win a sixth stage win for his Dimension Data team in this year’s race – but in De Gendt, a previous winner on the Stelvio in the Giro d’Italia, he came up a rider with a superior kick.

It was De Gendt who darted clear to win the stage by two seconds, and with it moving nine points clear of Pinot and back into the polka dot jersey he wore for two days earlier in the race.

Remnants of the break arrived in dribs and drabs but the focus now was on the battle for yellow as Froome showed Quintana how it’s done with one of his trademark seated surges. BMC’s Richie Porte – a man who knows Froome inside out form their time together at Sky – was the only rider capable of following, and the pair opened up a gap over their rivals as the road narrowed because of the sheer volume of fans.

Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) attacked from the Quintana group behind and the Dutchman had just caught Froome and Porte when the latter rode into the back of the TV motorbike in scenes that were no doubt greeted with a collective gasp all over the world.

In the confusion that followed Froome ran along with his damaged bike for 20 metres before discarding it and continuing his uphill job in a panic. The replacement yellow Mavic bike that eventually came was neither the right size nor set up correctly, and Froome discarded that as well – just as he was passed by the riders he had earlier humbled with his attack.

The 31-year-old eventually crossed the line and after an initial period of uncertainty he was reinstated as the race leader, depriving Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange) of a chance to lead the world’s greatest bike race – albeit a bike race brought skidding to a halt by its overzealous fans and the continued hot potato of official race vehicles.

Never has a victor on Mont Ventoux – albeit one six kilometres from the summit – been so neglected. Thomas De Gendt rode superbly to take a historic win and seize the polka dot jersey – but his win will always be overshadowed by the image of the yellow jersey running like a headless chicken up Bald Mountain.

The reinstating of Chris Froome’s as race leader was the correct and only decision the race organisers could realistically make – and they should be applauded for their quick resolution to a quite baffling and unprecedented incident.

When the dust settles Froome may feel hard done by. But the relief of being restored to the top of the standings will outgrow any regret at being denied the extra time over his rivals he would inevitably had taken had the final kilometre played out according to the usual rules of logic.

Nairo Quintana attacked twice but couldn’t make anything stick. At one point the Colombian could be seen shaking his head in frustration as he rode behind Froome, Wout Poels and Sergio Henao. When Froome attacked himself, Quintana had no answer – and in the end he was saved by quite extraordinary events, for Froome’s advantage over his rival would be much larger than one minute had there been no collision with a motorbike.

Elsewhere, Etixx-QuickStep rode hard on the approach to Mont Ventoux in a bid to set up their man Dan Martin for the final climb. But the Irishman struggled in the claustrophobic wooded section of the ascent and was quickly tailed off the main pack, dropping from third to ninth on GC almost two minutes behind Froome.

The race's inaugural time trial is a 37km lumpy affair from Rhône Valley to the biggest manmade cave in the world. Once down the ramp, the riders rise over three-hundred metres in the first seven kilometres before negotiating a rolling plateau and dropping down into the stunning Ardèche gorge.

The easiest job today will be that of the helicopter camera man, who'll be able to use the vineyard-clad vistas far better than any French tourism board could. The road climbs steadily to the finish with an average gradient of 5% over the last 3.5 kilometres meaning the time gaps between the GC favourites might be significant.