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Tour de France: Bradley Wiggins halts stage 14 amid sabotage

Last updated on .From the section Cyclingcomments165

Bradley Wiggins and Cadel Evans finished side-by-side

The 14th stage of the Tour de France was hit by saboteurs who threw tacks onto the road and left 30 riders suffering punctures.

Race leader Bradley Wiggins was praised by organisers for "fair play" after halting competitive racing following the incident on the final climb.

Wiggins slowed the pace to allow defending champion Cadel Evans to return to the group.

He said: "I thought it was the honourable thing to do."

Spain's Luis-Leon Sanchez, who was involved in a breakaway, won the stage.

However, the day's drama was unfolding back at the summit of the Mur de Peguere, a Pyreneean mountain which was making its debut as a climb in the Tour.

Race official Jean-Francois Pescheux confirmed: "The nails were mainly thrown on the ground around 200m from the summit.

"It was obviously done on purpose. We have the tacks but we don't know who spread them. They are imbeciles."

However, he was quick to praise the actions of Wiggins. "Sky showed they are for fair play," he added. "They saw that something had happened and they slowed the peloton so that things could come together for the ride to the finish."

Tour etiquette dictates that rivals do not take advantage of another rider's misfortune concerning the mechanics of the bike. And, as soon as he realised what was happening, Team Sky's lead rider called for a truce.

Wiggins, aiming to become the first British rider to win the race, said: "Nobody wants to benefit from someone else's misfortune."

The 32-year-old, who was spending a British record seventh day in the yellow jersey and leads by more than two minutes, conceded though that the riders are powerless to stop such actions.

"It's something we can't control," said Wiggins, who was hit by a flare on Saturday. "There's nothing stopping more of that sort of stuff happening. It's sad. These are the type of things we have to put up with as cyclists.

"I think people take that for granted sometimes, just how close they can get to us. If that happened in a football stadium, or wherever, you'd be arrested, CCTV.

"But we're out there, quite vulnerable at times, very close to the public on climbs. We're just the riders at the end of the day and we're there to be shot at, literally."

Wiggins, Froome, Evans and Vincenzo Nibali, the four riders in contention to win this year's race, all reached the summit together but BMC rider Evans immediately jumped off his bike and removed his damaged back wheel.

However, the Australian's support car was struggling to get up the narrow mountain road which was lined with thousands of spectators and his first team-mate who could offer support, Britain's Steven Cummings, also had a rear wheel puncture.

Evans waited for more than one minute for assistance and then suffered two more punctures on the descent.

George Hincapie, Evans's BMC team-mate, who is riding in a record 17th Tour de France, said: "There was something on the road. I've never seen anything like that."

Any thoughts that Evans would lose significant time in the race though were tempered by the actions of Wiggins, who also had to change his own bike on the descent, although it is unclear whether he too suffered a puncture.

Evans acknowledged the sportsmanship of Wiggins as the peloton crossed the line more than 18 minutes after race winner Sanchez.

Rabobank rider Sanchez escaped from a group of five others, which included green points jersey leader Peter Sagan, with 11km of the 191km race from Limoux to Foix remaining and he held his form to complete the fourth Tour de France stage win of his career.

Monday's stage 15 is a largely flat 159km ride from Samatan to Pau.

Stage 14 top five:

1. Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa) Rabobank - 4hrs 50mins, 29secs

2. Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas @ 47"

3. Sandy Casar (Fra) FDJ BigMat

4. Philippe Gilbert (Bel) BMC

5. Gorka Izaguirre (Spa) Euskaltel

Overall race standing after stage 14:

1. Bradley Wiggins (GB) Team Sky 64hrs, 41mins, 16secs

2. Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky @ 2'05"

3. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas @ 2'23

4. Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Raing @ 3'19"

5. Jurgen van den Broeck (Bel) Lotto @ 4'48"

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165 comments

  • Comment posted by david, at 18:31 15 Jul 2012

    Outstanding sportsmanship from Wiggo and the peloton. How many other competitive sports would you see that type of camaraderie between rivals? Wiggo has proven today that he's a worthy yellow jersey and boss of the Tour, especially after some of the sniping he's had to put up with. Good luck Brad and Team Sky, see you in Paris.

  • Comment posted by User0648021691, at 18:35 15 Jul 2012

    This just goes to show what an honorable rider Bradley is. He will make a great champion if he can survive the Pyrenees. It certainly shows that sportsmanship is alive today and not everyone will try and gain an advantage like Contador did in 2010.

  • Comment posted by User0158438187, at 18:42 15 Jul 2012

    Good to see Bradley showing tackt... I'll get me coat..

  • Comment posted by Salyavin, at 19:55 15 Jul 2012

    Well done Wiggo and the Sky team. Contador, please take note: THIS is what to do when a major rival has a problem - instead of attacking, like you did when Schleck lost his chain in 2010.

  • Comment posted by john_L, at 18:34 15 Jul 2012

    Really good to see Bradley Wiggins do the right thing and neutralize things so Cadel and others could get back on, before they knew it was sabotage. It'll be a moment of outrage in France that their event was sabotaged like that!

  • Comment posted by bitofrealism, at 18:53 15 Jul 2012

    Great to see nobody trying to take advantage of mechanical issues, credit to their sport.

    Glad Europcar called back Rolland after he attacked, would have been very bad press for his team if he was to take a few minutes out of his GC rivals.

  • Comment posted by John G, at 20:11 15 Jul 2012

    The good and bad.
    Good stuff from Wiggo and the other top riders for waiting - it could happen to any of them.
    The bad - not only stupid but dangerous to drop tacks on the mountain - unbelievable and the complete opposite of the good sportmanship shown by the riders.

  • Comment posted by User0648021691, at 18:48 15 Jul 2012

    @8 Stan howard

    Do you have any proof to back up your claim that no Liverpool players are hyped up on drugs and likewise that the last 20 tour winners have been. That is a very libelous claim to make.

  • Comment posted by geraldo geraldo, at 20:39 15 Jul 2012

    This thread seems to have been hijacked by conspiracy theorists and Liverpool supporters. It's not all about you. Bradley Wiggins has shown pride and skill to get to the position he is in. Let's back him and Team GB for Olympic gold!!!!

  • Comment posted by Alun Rees, at 01:39 16 Jul 2012

    @ umpteenth_time_user save 606 Obviously you are a person who would cheat at any cost and that the word sportsmanship is a foreign word to you. And it is obvious that you are an armchair critic and know nothing of the sport as Wiggins came over the line with Nibali and Evans alongside, so clocking the same time as his contenders. One thing is for sure that Wiggins wants to win fair and square.

  • Comment posted by Stuart, at 02:09 16 Jul 2012

    @95 if Wiggins really had a win at all costs mentality then....wouldn't he have attacked Cadel when he had that puncture instead of holding up the Peloton??

    Give Praise where its deserved, Wiggins deserves it in spades, Contador doesn't for the 2010 incident.

  • Comment posted by User0158438187, at 08:45 16 Jul 2012

    @umpteenth-time
    After checking out your profile I conclude you are a consistently negative whinger with a skewed opinion on everything. Hardly surprising, given the 'team' you 'follow'. I can only surmise you have been poisoned by too many prawn sandwiches.
    Exemplary behaviour from Wiggins and the pelaton, Vive Le Tour!

  • Comment posted by jp, at 18:36 15 Jul 2012

    @ 1.geraldo geraldo
    You make a good point, but why bring about such maliciousness and single out Liverpool?? They're all as bad as eachother! These blogs would be alot better if people concentrated more on what cycling is good for, without comparing it to and rubbishing other sports???

    Still, great sportsmanship by Wiggins today, he sould be romping to victory in Paris come next Sunday!!

  • Comment posted by meme_bot, at 08:41 16 Jul 2012

    As the Directeur Sportif of Le Tour said afterwards, Wiggins and his team did exactly what is expected of them by neutralising the stage when they realised that GC riders had been affected. Wiggins, yet again, shows that cycling and cycling lore is his life as he honoured Tommy Simpson, who died on the same day 45 years ago.
    It's a shame that folks don't use resources available to learn a bit...

  • Comment posted by Tim, at 22:15 15 Jul 2012

    @37 Mostsports. Most ironic comment of the day! Heaping praise on a rookie with 3 stage wins, then describing praise for a rider with a whole Tour's worth of stage wins as "premature"? Classic!

    The Tour was privately embarassed that a sprinter with as many stage wins as Cav had not won the GJ until last year. He'll continue to rack up stage wins rather than GJs, and cement his place in history.

  • Comment posted by User0793453026, at 18:55 15 Jul 2012

    @11 what are you on about? It's common place for the peloton to wait for contenders affected by mechanical issues, who would want the tour to be decided by a puncture on a mountain?

  • Comment posted by dom, at 19:00 15 Jul 2012

    it was definitely the right thing to do. given the nature of the race over 3 weeks, the winner should be the guy that has the lowest aggregate time in fair racing. Tacks being thrown onto the road could have caused serious injury, so it was the right thing to do. If I was Nibali, I would wait til the final mountain stage and go for a big attack on the summit finish. Can't see Evans winning it now

  • Comment posted by User0609542280, at 21:17 15 Jul 2012

    It was probably the government who did it.
    Those guys will put tax on anything!

  • Comment posted by Greatblackhawk, at 19:52 15 Jul 2012

    The sport has had some setbacks in the past but actions like his show a sense of fair play.
    Shame some idiot(s) have to draw attention to themselves this way.
    Let's hope it's a one-off.

  • Comment posted by david, at 18:52 15 Jul 2012

    Can we get back to cycling and the Tour please. Don't let one idiot comment in the first post spoil the comments section again.

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