Geraint Thomas says his gears jammed and threw him off the bike in Tour de France crash
A lucky escape for the reigning champion who avoided losing time after the fall
Geraint Thomas says that jammed gears caused him to crash in the 2019 Tour de France’s 16th stage around Nîmes.
Team Ineos rider Thomas, as with his previous two crashes in this race, appears fine and unaffected by the tumble. He fell on his left side heading into a right-hand bend.
“I just had one hand on the bars and then the gears jumped and jammed,” Thomas said coming to a stop after a sauna-like 177km stage 16.
“And I just got thrown off my bike basically on a corner.
“It wasn’t ideal.”
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Thomas fell on stage one and again with team-mate Gianni Moscon on stage eight.
“It was just such a freak thing. I’m all right,” Thomas added.
The incident occurred with 129km kilometres to race, when Thomas’s front wheel appeared to flick out from under him.
The Welshman bounced up and calmly mounted a new bike. After he re-joined the race, he saw the doctor.
“No [injuries], I just took off an old scar. So obviously it was new skin bleeding,” he continued.
“I just saw [the doctor]. He just sprayed some water on me and stuff, and that was it. He just wanted to chat to me. It was all good.”
Thomas has one more “calm” day to Gap tomorrow before the final mountain tests begin with stage 18. He sits shotgun to race leader Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck – Quick-Step), trailing at 1-35 minutes.
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Behind Thomas, four riders sit closely packed within 39 seconds. The crash happened at a bad time with more tough and hot racing ahead.
“I think it’ll be another hot tough day tomorrow,” Thomas said.
“I don’t think [this will affect me for the mountains]. I feel fine. It’s just a new new skin, like a new scar. That just came off so it looks worse than what it was.”