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Chaotic End to Tour de France Stage 12 for Richie Porte

  • Ron 

Stage 12 of the 2016 Tour de France ended in chaos when Richie Porte was involved in a crash caused by a stopped motorcycle and uncontrolled crowds in the final kilometer of the stage.

Porte, Chris Froome (Team SKY), and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) had attacked from the General Classification group and held a 23-second lead when the incident took place.

The crash caused Porte to require a wheel change which saw him finish more 45 seconds back on his General Classification rivals. Tejay van Garderen was also caught up behind the crash when the group was forced to slow behind the stationery motorbike.

Following the stage finish, the UCI jury awarded Porte and Froome the same time as Mollema (5’05” down on stage winner Thomas De Gendt).

The UCI’s decision sees Froome retain the Yellow Jersey and van Garderen and Porte move up to 7th and 11th place respectively.

Porte will be examined for any injuries by BMC Racing Team’s medical team and further updates on his condition will be provided when possible.

Quotes on the UCI’s Post-Stage Decision:

Richie Porte:

“It’s the decision they had to take. It’s already out of control. I agree that you come to the race, you have a good time but you don’t need to be running beside the riders, you don’t need to hitting riders, pushing riders. Things have got to change and I can’t believe there weren’t barriers there. At the end of the day I’ve trained so hard for this and yeah okay now I get the same time as Mollema, but I also crashed and now I’m sore. Tomorrow’s a crucial stage as well and it remains to be seen how I’ll pull up. It’s bitterly disappointing but at the end of the day it’s the right decision by the UCI jury. We love the fans and 99 percent of them are brilliant but why do some of them need to take their selfies and run along beside us? There’s passion and there’s stupidity and it’s not such a fine line between them.”

Jim Ochowicz, General Manager:

“It’s a fair decision for all parties. I don’t know how else you could resolve it other than go back to the one kilometer mark and take the time from the riders at that point. But there could have been more time gaps one way or another had they gone to the finish line without the crash. But under the circumstances it’s fair for everybody.”

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