The close-up video, below, of the major crash with 3km to go on yesterday's opening stage of the Tour de France shows just how close Sam Bennett came to falling at speed.
While the Irishman was caught up in a crash earlier in the stage, it wasn't a significant one and the bunch wasn't traveling at high speed.
However, the pile-up with 3km to go was much more serious and he was very lucky to just about avoid it.
The crash appears to have been caused by riders' wheels slipping on the white paint of the pedestrian crossing on the wet roads.
Related News
In the clip below Bennett's Deceuninck-QuickStep team mate Michael Mørkøv can be seen moving suddenly after the skid in the bunch, which sent him in the direction of the Irishman as others fall just behind them.
Advertisement
However, Bennett just manages to avoid the crash, though others were not so lucky; Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) the biggest general classification name caught up in that late incident.
The roads were like ice after heavy rainfall in the area around Nice for the first time in months, with the riders neutralising the pace on the stage for a long period, though crashes continued even during that halt to hostilities.
Some riders who were out the back on their own having crashed then fell again; a stark indication of just how slippy the roads were.
Topics
