The stage, which saw Marcel Kittel's deadly third sharp, had just begun when a shiver ran through the caravan: a general braking, a swaying of the group towards the edge of the road to the left sends a rider flying to the ground: it's Chris Froome . For the Martian of the 2013 Tour, great favorite again this year, a nasty blow to the wrist and thigh. Immediately medicated by the doctor, Froome manages to rejoin the group of Nibali and Contador without difficulty, giving the impression that these are minor grazes.
But in a stage like the one that awaits the riders tomorrow, the fraction of the dreaded pavé, with the bike constantly jolting on the broken stones of the road surface, a sore wrist could complicate life for the white Kenyan. Froome, having finished today's stage without damage, is confident in a calm night. That sort of Roubaix, which the organizers wanted to re-propose in the Tour, frightens many with its fifteen cobbled sectors from Ypres to Arenberg. Even a rider like Fabian Cancellara hates it, who is also one of the specialists, multiple winner of the classic monument, super popular for tomorrow's stage. Imagine those, like Nibali and Contador, who have always avoided racing Paris-Roubaix. The plastered Froome contrasts with the extraterrestrial Froome which, for a spot by Jaguar, sponsor of Team Sky, crosses the English Channel by bike through the service tunnel in 55 minutes, only 20 minutes more than the train. This is how the Briton appears in a video, recorded months ago, which was broadcast in the same hours in which the Tour moved by plane from London to France last night: a commercial operation that fueled the super image of the Sky champion . The fall brutally brought the Martian back to earth and already at the last Criterium du Dauphiné he realized how fate, racing on a bike, can also turn against extraterrestrials.
The chronicle of the first stage on French soil, which inevitably has the focus on Froome's tumble and which must also record the painful withdrawal of Andy Schleck due to the consequences of yesterday's crash at the gates of London, is lived on a long breakaway by Thomas Vockler , the craziest but also the most loved of French cyclists, at first together with Luis Angel Mate and then alone before being joined by the group 17km from Lille. And when there is a general sprint, who wins but Kittel? And so it was also in Lille, under a gray and humid sky. For the German it is the third victory in four stages. An extraordinary streak for the Giant-Shimano champion who narrowly ruled Kristoff and Demare and who seems to soon shatter his personal record of four successes obtained in last year's Tour. Classification obviously unchanged with Vincenzo Nibali for the third day in the yellow jersey, on the eve of the eagerly awaited first test tomorrow on the bumpy black cobblestones of Arenberg. A demanding test for anyone who wants to be a protagonist in this Tour, especially for Froome after today's scare.
