Dutch ace Dylan Groenewegen sprinted to a second straight win on stage eight of the Tour de France on Saturday as second and third Andre Greipel and Fernando Gaviria were disqualified for elbowing and headbutting at 70km/h.
Fourth-placed Peter Sagan inherited second with fifth-placed John Degenkolb promoted to third after a thrilling but rough and tumble sprint.
Overall leader Greg Van Avermaet of BMC held on to the yellow jersey for a sixth day but after a mass fall held up around half the peloton 17km from the line Ireland’s Dan Martin trailed home 1min 16sec off the winner bleeding at the elbow and with his Tour hopes severely dented.
“I’m going to try and ride tomorrow but obviously it’s going to be very sore,” said Martin at his UAE Team Emirates bus.
“When the doctor took off the bandage he went oooh! When you hear a doctor say that you know it’s no good,” he said.
“It hurts and I’m in shock.”
Quick Step’s Julian Alaphilippe, who started the day in fourth overall was also caught in the fall and appeared to be in severe discomfort in his saddle.
Most of the other leading contenders, including Chris Froome, Romain Bardet, Vincenzo Nibali, Nairo Quintana and Richie Porte came home safely in the peloton.
– Groenewegen finds his mojo –
The 25-year-old Groenewegen, who rides for the Dutch Lotto team, flew out of the pack on France’s July 14 national holiday to leave Greipel, Gaviria and Sagan trailing in his wake.
He made his move at the very last moment and showing for a second time that he has refound his form and above all his confidence.
“I didn’t see what happened behind me and can’t comment on the decision,” said the Dutch rider who also won Friday’s seventh stage to join Sagan and Gaviria with two wins each from the first eight days’ racing.
“I was watching everything and I just waited for my chance,” said the stocky Amsterdam native who on Friday put a finger to his lips to silence his detractors at the line but on Saturday put up two fingers, which he said was for two, and for peace.
World road race champion Sagan extended his lead on the green jersey points race and was as relaxed as ever.
“I started early, because everyone was there, I’m there every day so maybe that is why I didn’t quite have the strength for the finish,” explained Sagan.
“Tomorrow I’ll try again, it’ll be a hard day for all of us, but it’s just 150km, just three and a half hours,” he said keeping a straight face.
“Greg (Van Avermaet) and the classic guys will be there, maybe around 50 of us,” he said.
– Carte blanche for yellow jersey –
With all eyes turning to Sunday’s Arras Roubaix stage which has 15 cobbled sections which date back to the old time mining era on the menu.
Van Avermaet won a spring classic there in 2017 and was asked if Sunday he had to work for his team leader Richie Porte.
“It could be good if I went for it and the team looked after Richie,” said the 31-year-old Belgian who won the Olympic road race title at Rio in 2016.
“The weather makes a huge difference, so let’s see, even today on this flat, boring stage, wind would have cut that peloton in three, Roubaix is always unpredictable.”
Van Avermaet then agreed with a quip from the press pack that he might not get Carte Blanche but maybe he’d a Carte Jaune (yellow), the colour of his jersey.
– French courage on Bastille day –
Fabien Grellier of Direct Energie and Marco Minnard of Wanty embarked on a long break across the plains and Grellier eventually won the day’s ‘Combativity’ award for brave riding.
“It’s a shame there were not more French in the escape but what can I do, I kept at it and with 50km to go and only a two minutes lead I knew it was impossible, but I plugged on because of the day,” said Grellier.
Latvia’s Toms Skujins of Trek-Segafredo kept hold of the polka dot King of the Mountains jersey. – Agence France-Presse
