Multiple crashes prompt calls for change

PONTIVY (France) • A string of heavy crashes reduced the Tour de France peloton to a heap of wounded bodies on Monday, as a leading sports director called for greater safety at the world's greatest cycling race.

Two days after a spectator holding a cardboard sign and looking the other way sent Tony Martin and a large section of the peloton tumbling, Geraint Thomas and Primoz Roglic and others took more tumbles in separate incidents involving no fans at all.

On the seafront at the Plage de Testel, 2018 champion Thomas lost his concentration and hit the ground so hard he dislocated a shoulder before making it back to the peloton with the help of three teammates. Scenes of the Welshman shaking his legs when having his shoulder put back in by medics will live long in the memory.

Slovenia's Roglic then hit the tarmac hip-first with 10km to go and while shaken he also limited his losses with the help of teammates.

But it was two more pile-ups in a nerve-racking finale on rain-slick, narrow roads that were the main cause for concern in the peloton.

On a left-hand curve with 4km left in the 182.9km stage from Lorient, a massive crash took down among others France's Arnaud Demare and Bahrain Victorious team leader Jack Haig, who was forced to abandon the race.

The worst fall came in the home straight with Caleb Ewan hitting Belgian stage winner Tim Merlier's back wheel at over 80kmh and taking Slovak sprint specialist Peter Sagan down with him, the pair sliding for tens of metres on the tarmac. It left the Australian with a broken collarbone and he was also forced out of the race.

The two late incidents triggered an angry reaction from Demare's Groupama FDJ team manager Marc Madiot. "There are many families who watch the Tour de France on television. There are many children who watch the Tour de France. There are many mothers who watch the Tour de France on television," he said.

"Well, tonight, I don't want my kid to be a professional cyclist, my wife doesn't want my kid to ride a bike, and many families don't want their kids to ride a bike after what we have seen today.

"We've been talking about this for years, but now we have to find solutions. We can't go on like this, it's not cycling anymore. What state is Caleb Ewan in? And the others? So we have to change."

Madiot listed things that could change to make it safer for the cyclists as they ride along, with constant team orders coming through their earpieces, sometimes on dangerous roads.

"Maybe we need to adapt the equipment, maybe we need to remove the earpieces, maybe we need to do a lot of things. But it has to be done. If we don't change anything, we'll have deaths," he said.

A leading sports director who has taken part in several editions of the Tour lashed out at the organisers for the way they designed the stage's finale through narrow, winding roads.

"Unbelievable to send riders on such roads in the last 20 kilometres. It's a circus. Clearly they don't care about the riders' health," the sports director, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

Yellow jersey wearer Mathieu van der Poel cut a dour figure compared to the tear-filled elation he experienced after winning Sunday's Stage 2.

"It was a very fast, technical run-in with all the general classification guys racing for their places, it's difficult to say anything now," he said.

"It's a big race, (in the) overall standings guys fighting against sprinters, for sure it's a dangerous sport."

Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe, winner of the first stage, had to swerve to avoid Ewan and Sagan in the run-in.

"That was a mentally shattering day, I'm glad it's over," he said.

As for the mystery woman in yellow who caused the first crash during Stage 1 with her sign held up in front of the pack, French authorities are still actively looking for her, a high-ranking official said.

Riders put their collective foot down 1km into the fourth stage yesterday - literally - bringing the race to a halt for about a minute in a silent protest for safer racing conditions. They then rode the next 10km at a snail's pace.

But the 150.4km ride from Redon ended with a sprint finish as Britain's Mark Cavendish took his tally of wins to 31 on the Tour - three short of record holder Eddy Merckx. The Deceuninck-Quick Step rider broke down and wept after securing his first Tour stage victory in five years. He only made the Deceuninck Tour roster after Irish sprinter Sam Bennett pulled out at the last minute, with few expecting the Epstein-Barr sufferer to win a stage.

France's Nacer Bouhanni was second, and Belgian Jasper Philipsen came home third.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE