For the sprinters at the Tour de France, that was probably that. No more opportunities. Stage 17 from Bollène to Valence was more than likely their final chance to win. Jonathan Milan took full advantage in torrential rain, taking his second win of the race and strengthening his lead in the points classification, but behind many of his rivals were taken out by a crash under the flamme rouge.
The scoreboard among the fastmen reads: Milan 2, Tim Merlier 2, and already departed Jasper Philipsen 1. The rest? Zilch. It’s easy to understand why the crash in the finishing kilometre, that was caused when a Picnic PostNL rider touched wheels with a Uno-X Mobility rider, left many despondent.
“It’s super frustrating: you suffer all day and at the end you don’t sprint,” Kaden Groves said, the Australian having inherited the injured Philipsen’s place as Alpecin-Deceuninck’s chosen sprinter. “It was absolute chaos [in the last 20km]. When the breakaway is strong and Jonas Abrahamsen is still away, and then the weather goes from being dry all day to suddenly being wet, it always causes stress.
“I didn't come down but I was behind and there were riders sliding all over the road. We did the sequence of roundabouts without a crash and then we crashed in a straight line.”
The worst-effected from the crash was Biniam Girmay. Last year’s green jersey winner was clutching his right arm as he crossed the line, and was being looked over by his team doctor on the Intermarché-Wanty bus. At the time of writing his condition is unknown.
Merlier was another rider held up, and though he has bagged a brace of victories in the race, he was just as vexed. “My Tour is pretty decent but I missed three chances to sprint – I was only able to sprint twice,” he said. “It’s a bit of a shame because I felt there was more to do, but there weren’t many opportunities. I’m a bit worried today because for me it was the last opportunity.”
The Belgian was left cursing his own decisions. “I made a mistake,” he continued. “I went to the wrong side of the road and I lost a lot of positions. I knew I could still do something but just as I wanted to get back on track there was a crash.”
His compatriot, Lotto’s Arnaud De Lie, was on the right side of the fall, but for the second time in the race he finished fourth. “It’s disappointing because there was a way to do better than fourth,” he said. “I should have been in Jonathan Milan’s wheel, not next to him. When he started his sprint I touched his wheel and that made me lose all my speed.
“I’m not saying I would have won if I hadn’t touched his wheel, but I would have had a better chance of fighting for victory.”
But while most other sprinters are assuming that stage 21 in Paris will not end in a bunch sprint thanks to the inclusion of three laps of the Montmartre climb, De Lie has faith that there remains a sixth and final opportunity. “Today I was even closer to victory than in Châteauroux [on stage nine] but it didn’t go as planned. I only have one more chance to win, in Paris. With the legs I have and the team’s form, we can have big ambitions.”
