Marcel wins stage, Nibali leads
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GERMAN Marcel Kittel won his third stage on this year’s Tour de France when he prevailed in a bunch sprint yesterday after defending champion Chris Froome suffered a fall.
Kittel, who won the first and third stages, now has seven Tour stages to his name after beating Norwegian Alexander Kristoff and France’s Arnaud Demare.
Italian Vincenzo Nibali retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey after spending a quiet day in the peloton, which was not the case for Froome.
The Briton fell off his bike five kilometers into the 163.5-km ride from Le Touquet to Lille in France but quickly got back, sustaining a possible wrist injury and bruising his left hip, shoulder, knee and elbow.
“It’s alright, it’s alright. We got really scared because it was a heavy fall but he seems to be OK. He says it’s OK,” said Team Sky sports director Nicolas Portal.
Froome, fifth overall and two seconds behind Nibali, crashed on the same side during last month’s Criterium du Dauphine.
His wrist will be put to the test on the cobblestones that mark today’s 155.5km fifth stage from Ypres to Arenberg Porte du Hainaut.
After the incident, he received treatment from race doctor Florence Pommerie and was helped back into the peloton by his Sky teammates.
“He’s got bruises on his left side. He must be hurting a little,” said Pommerie.
“His wrist is also hurting,” she added, explaining further assessment would be done later.
Another overall contender, Dutchman Baike Mollema, was caught up in the crash, but did not seem injured.
Earlier, another former champion, Andy Schleck of Luxemburg, pulled out of the Tour following a crash in the third stage, his Trek team said yesterday.
“We are sad to announce that Andy Schleck cannot take the start today. The ligaments and meniscus in the right knee are too severely damaged from his crash in yesterday’s final,” the team said.
“He will travel to Basel now for examination and a possible operation.”
Schleck, who won the 2010 Tour after Spain’s Alberto Contador was stripped of the title for doping, has been struggling since sustaining a hip injury the 2012 Criterium du Dauphine.
After three stages in Britain, where huge crowds turned up to support the peloton from Yorkshire to London, the race came back to France as it heads towards the Vosges through the North.
The wind caused a split in the peloton some 60km from the finish with Pole Michal Kwiatkowski being trapped behind, but he was brought back by his Omega Pharma-Quick Step teammates.
Slovakian Peter Sagan fell off his bike with less than 20 km left but made it back into the bunch.
(Agencies)
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