Video: Gilbert finishes Tour stage but can barely walk after it

Philippe Gilbert crashed but would finish, despite being barely able to walk when he got off his bike.

 

Anyone who needed a reminder of how tough pro cyclists are needed only to look at Philippe Gilbert after today's stage 16 of the Tour de France.

The Belgian former world champion crashed while leading the stage, flying over a wall and down the other side, see video below.

He was clearly badly injured but climbed back on his bike to get to the finish; with 59km of the 218km stage remaining at the time.

However, while he battled on to finish - sixth from last and 31 minutes down - he could barely walk after the incident, see second video below.

Gilbert appeared on the podium to collect the combativity award. But by the time he had visited the medical station, his leg had seized up.

Advertisement

Furthermore, he is now out of the race due to the injuries he sustained.

His QuickStep team mate Julian Alaphilippe won the stage; from Carcassonne to Bagnères-de-Luchon.

The Frenchman spent the day in the very large escape group hoovering up climbers' points to keep his lead in that classification.

 

Top down: The stage winner,  Thomas in yellow today, the favourites group on the final climb where the expected big showdown failed to materialise.

 

On the final climb of the day and down the descent into the finish Alaphilippe took off after Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott).

And when Yates crashed, Alaphilippe caught and passed him. He then went on to take the stage victory; his second of this Tour.

Almost nine minutes later the select group finished. The battle up and off the final climb failed to materialise between the general classification men.

Related News

That meant there was no change in the overall ahead of what looks to be the key stage tomorrow.

It is the just 65km from Bagnères-de-Luchon to Saint-Lary-Soulan. The final climb, to the summit finish, is the 16km Col du Portet at 8.7 per cent.

The race remains poised for a final showdown for yellow; Geraint Thomas in the jersey and holding all the cards.

He is 1:39 clear of his Team Sky team mate Chris Froome. And Froome, the reigning champion who is going for his fifth Tour victory, is expected to attack tomorrow.

If that happens, it will be done under the guise of attacking third-placed overall Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb).

And Thomas is likely to chase Froome, assuming he can, under the guise of marking Dumoulin, assuming the Dutchman is able to live with Froome.

Dumoulin is just 11 seconds down on Froome overall. That means if Froome and Dumoulin were to gain time on Thomas tomorrow, Dumoulin would be in with a very good chance of winning the race overall.

The penultimate stage is a lumpy TT, with Dumoulin expected to win that.

However, given the advantage Thomas currently enjoys, it is almost certain that Froome and Dumoulin need to gain time on him before the TT.

The time he currently has in hand over both men seems like too much to pull back in the test.

Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) finished in the favourites' group today. He remains 10th overall, some 6:54 down on Thomas.

 

 

 

 

Topics
feature

Related News