Chris Froome has spent months fretting and preparing for the treacherous Paris-Roubaix cobbles that await him on Wednesday’s fifth stage of the Tour de France. He warned that it could end his Tour and then, on the day where there was supposed to be serenity before the storm, near disaster.
Four kilometres after the starter’s flag dropped and Tuesday’s fourth stage from Le Touquet Paris Plage to Lille Métropole had begun, there was clank of wheels ahead of him – and then into him. Slowly, but unavoidably, he was tipping to his left and towards the tarmac, like a giant redwood falling after being cut the final time by the woodcutter’s axe.
Froome’s team-mate Bernhard Eisel, who helped him back to the peloton, said: “Someone in the peloton made a mistake, they lost their front wheel, the next guy put his foot on the ground, there was a big wave through the bunch, Froome was the third rider in it and he had no chanc e. The wave went right through the whole bunch, from 10th position right to last. By the time it got to me he was already picking himself up.”
Afterwards blame was pointed at the Belkin rider Stef Clement, who touched Jens Keukeleire’s wheel, sendng him into Froome. “He dived into a room that wasn’t there,” said Keukeleire. “Froome told me he knew it wasn’t my fault.”
When Froome landed he spun round to assess the damage. Immediately his eyes fixed on his shorts – or what was left of them – and his bloodied left buttock but the way he jumped back on his bike and pedalled back towards the bunch suggested there was no aggravated damage to the left hip injured during the Dauphine last month.
His left shoulder was also torn and his elbow bloodied but it was his left wrist that was particularly troublesome. At one point he touched all the fingers on his left hand in turn before being examined by the Tou r’s head doctor, Florence Pommerie.
Froome’s shoulder was taped up. Gauze squashed into his hip. A splint fixed to protect his left wrist. He ploughed on. An x-ray later revealed there were no breaks but Pommerie said that further tests might be required as a fracture may only truly reveal itself after 24 hours.
There will be no time to rest, or recover. Wednesday’s fifth stage from Ypres to Arenberg Porte du Hainaut goes over nine sections of cobblestones in the final 69km – a total of 15.4km in total – including a kilometre of the notoriously difficult Mons-en-Pévèle. To make it worse, rain is expected.
The riders will not only shake and rattle on the cobblestones, the slippery conditions mean that they will be fearful of rolling too. Froome says his favourite race is Paris-Roubaix, even though “it doesn’t really suit my style at the moment“. He has only rode the race once, in 2008 – when his race ended after he crashed into a commissaire’s car.
In 2008 Froome also rode Gent to Wevelgem, finishing 122nd, and in the Scheldeprijs Vlaanderen, where he came a respectable 22nd, but those cobbles have nothing like the fearsomeness of Paris-Robaix, the race they call “Hell of the North”.
Crashing and the possibility of sustaining punctures is not the only problem – getting stuck behind an incident and losing lots of time is another ever-present fear. There will be an almighty fight for prime position before the cobbles come.
When they get there rain will make it “like riding on ice”, according to Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas.
It is also worth remembering too that the last time it rained on a cobbled stage of the Tour de France, in 1980, it left Bernard Hinault with a knee problem because he rode too hard and got tendinitis. It cost him the Tour.
Tuesday’s race started with high drama but for long stretches it was fairly sedate as Europcar’s Tommy Voeckler and Cofidis’s Luis Ángel Maté Mardones stayed away until the latter suffered a puncture with 55km to go.
That left Voeckler to push it alone but when he was swallowed up with 20km remaining the bunch sprint was always going to favour Marcel Kittel. Alexander Kristoff went early and when Mark Renshaw hesitated it appeared for a moment that the Norwegian might hold on. But then Kittel charged and Kristoff was pipped. Froome, along with Vincenzo Nibali and Alberto Contador all finished in the peloton.
And so the race moves on to Ypres to mark the 100th anniversary of the first world war. Then all eyes will be on Froome. In April, Jürgen Roelandts pulled out of Paris-Roubaix after a crash that injured his wrist and elbow.
Afterwards he claimed: “You can’t ride 50 kilometres of cobbles in such condition.” You expect Froome to be fine but he will fac e 15.4km of slow, painful torture.
The spectators will love what unfolds: in a world of team radios, team orders and intricate planning, the cobbles throw a giant wet spanner in the works.
However, as the favourite for the Tour prepares for his biggest test so far he knows he needs his wits – and his wrists – about him.
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