{"id":1312737,"date":"2019-07-23T15:24:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-23T21:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/thomas-crashes-again-as-heat-wave-engulfs-tour-de-france\/"},"modified":"2019-07-23T15:24:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-23T21:24:00","slug":"thomas-crashes-again-as-heat-wave-engulfs-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/thomas-crashes-again-as-heat-wave-engulfs-tour-de-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas crashes again as heat wave engulfs Tour de France"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Australia’s Caleb Ewan celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win the sixteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 117 kilometers (73 miles) with start and finish in Nimes, France, Tuesday, July 23, 2019. (AP Photo\/ Thibault Camus)<\/strong>
AP | AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

NIMES, France \u2014 Crashing is becoming a bad habit for defending Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas.<\/p>\n

After hitting the ground twice over the past two weeks, the Welshman fell off his bike one more time on Tuesday as a heat wave engulfed the race ahead of grueling days in the Alps when the Tour will reach its climax.<\/p>\n

Once again, Thomas was lucky enough to escape with bruises and scratches, but the timing of his crash in the rural hinterland of the antique Roman city of Nimes was unfortunate. Although Thomas quickly got back on his bike and did not lose time, crashes always have a lingering effect on riders\u2019 bodies. It\u2019s generally after 48 hours that the soreness reaches its peak, and that\u2019s when he will be fighting in high altitude with rivals trying to take him off his perch.<\/p>\n

Lagging 1 minute, 35 seconds behind race leader Julian Alaphilippe with the race now going into its five last stages, Thomas was caught off guard under a scorching sun about 40 kilometers into the stage won by Australian sprinter Caleb Ewan.<\/p>\n

The peloton was not riding at full speed, but Thomas was surprised.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just had one hand on the bars, and the gears jumped and jammed and I got thrown off my bike on a corner,\u201d he said. \u201cI knew the race wasn\u2019t on so I just got back into the group. It\u2019s just frustrating. It was such a freak thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danish rider Jakob Fuglsang, who stood ninth overall, was not as lucky and was forced to abandon the Tour with a left hand injury after falling late in the stage as the peloton pedaled past the picturesque town of Uzes.<\/p>\n

Thomas, a former track specialist who transformed into a Tour de France contender after years spent working in support of four-time champion Chris Froome, has always been prone to crashing. Just last month, his preparation for the Tour was cut short by a spill during a race in Switzerland.<\/p>\n

But he has also shown in the past that he can soldier on in pain. Six years ago when riding the Tour as Froome\u2019s loyal teammate, Thomas fell off his bike on a Corsican road in the opening stage and broke his pelvis. But he kept racing for 3,000 kilometers to reach the finish.<\/p>\n

He will need to be at the top of his form on Thursday for the start of an Alpine trilogy of stages including six climbs over 2,000 meters. This is when the race \u2014 the most exciting in the last decade \u2014 will be decided before Sunday\u2019s ceremonial ride to Paris.<\/p>\n

Sixteen stages out of 21 have been completed, but the suspense remains intact, with six riders separated by little more than 2 minutes. Behind Alaphilippe and Thomas, Steven Kruijswijk remained third, 1:47 off the pace and 3 seconds ahead of Thibaut Pinot. Thomas\u2019 Ineos teammate Egan Bernal lags 2:02 behind and Emmanuel Buchmann has a 2:14 deficit.<\/p>\n

Bernal, a Colombian and one of the best pure climbers in the Tour, played down Thomas\u2019 crash and said the race in the Alps will suit him more than the Pyrenees, where both Ineos leaders conceded time to Pinot.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe crashed but with no consequence and I don\u2019t think he\u2019ll suffer from it in the coming days,\u201d Bernal said. \u201cWe\u2019re approaching the Alps. The climbs there are longer and steeper. They\u2019re more of the Colombian style of climbing. I\u2019m ready and I feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ewan said he suffered from the heat throughout the stage \u2014 temperatures soared as high as 40 degrees Celsius (40 F) \u2014 but it did not slow him down in the finale. The Australian Tour debutant edged Elia Viviani and Dylan Groenewegen to post his second stage win following his maiden success in Toulouse last week.<\/p>\n

Earlier, riders tried to cool down with bottles of cold water against the backs of their necks as they pedaled on the Pont du Gard, an ancient Roman aqueduct bridge set against a dramatic landscape of rocks, trees and water. Alexis Gougeard, Lukasz Wisniowski, Stephane Rossetto, Paul Ourselin and Lars Bak organized the day\u2019s breakaway and had a maximum lead of 2 minutes.<\/p>\n

After the group was caught two kilometers from the finish, Viviani was set up by his teammates and launched the sprint about 200 meters from the line but could not resist Ewan\u2019s comeback.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, I felt so bad today during the day. I think the heat really got to me,\u201d Ewan said. \u201cI was really suffering but I had extra motivation today because my daughter and wife are here. I\u2019m so happy I could win for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia’s Caleb Ewan celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win the sixteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 117 kilometers (73 miles) with start and finish in Nimes, France, Tuesday, July 23, 2019. (AP Photo\/ Thibault Camus)AP | AP NIMES, France \u2014 Crashing is becoming a bad habit for defending […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1312737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 05:03:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312737\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}