Three of the four South Africans at the Tour de France will live to fight another day after two huge crashes caused chaos on a third stage that saw African-born and raised Chris Froome take the yellow jersey.
Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge) was forced to retire yesterday after he broke a collarbone. “So disappointed to not be able to start tomorrow . Crushed by it but will be back at the Tour and racing again in a few weeks time,” tweeted Impey today. He and his Orica-GreenEdge teammate Simon Gerrans left for home this morning. MTN-Qhubeka’s Daniel Teklehaimanot, Tyler Farrar and Reinhard Janse van Rensburg were involved in one of the two high-speed crashes that saw the race referees first neutralise the race and then stop it for a spell.
Dimension Data, who are the technology partners for the Tour, recorded the average speed of the riders at 42.03km/h for the first crash. MTN-Qhubeka confirmed Teklehaimanot, Farrar and Janse van Rensburg would be fit to ride today.
“It was quite nervous leading up to the point of the crash as everyone was fighting for position before the first climb of the day,” said Janse van Rensburg. “There was a touch of wheels up front and all I saw was guys on the floor. We were going so fast on that downhill that there wasn't even chance to brake and about 30-40 riders went down. I crashed on the grass so I am okay. Daniel and Tyler look a bit worse than me but they still look okay to continue.”
It was a good day after what has been a great weekend for South African cycling, when Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, riding for the Bigla team, held on to third place overall after the third stage of the Giro Rosa in Mantova. She is just five seconds behind the leader, American Megan Guarnier Boels (Dolmans). The South African champion had taken third in the bunch spring on Sunday’s second stage. “It was a good day in the office after some great team work,” said Moolman-Pasio.
There are six more stages left of the Giro Rosa, the premier women’s stage race, which ends on Sunday.
Serge Pauwels, MTN-Qhubeka’s Belgium rider, got involved in the first and only break of the day, which went from the gun. Pauwels and three others stayed away until the 60km mark, when they were caught just as the crash happened. There was a prize of a brand new Peugeot car for the first Belgian to cross the line after the 15km mark and as Pauwels was the only Belgian in the break, he will be presented with the car when the tour ends.
MTN-Qhubeka’s Louis Meintjies and Merhawi Kudus managed to stay with the leading group as they headed toward the end of the stage on the notorious Mur de Huy climb. As Froome animated the race and split the front ground apart, Meintjies and Kudus held on for fine 22nd and 30th places respectively.
MTN-Qhubeka’s held on to the leader’s yellow jersey at the Tour of Austria after the team rode hard to bring back an early break. Ciolek finished ninth in the sprint.
“We worked really hard to keep the yellow jersey,” said Kristian Sbaragli of MTN-Qhubeka. “Nobody helped us to control the race so it was quite a hard stage. We were able to close the gap to everything that went away and it was a bunch sprint. Gerald was feeling good too so we were able to hold on to the yellow jersey.”