Tour de France 'Carnage' After Bus Gets Stuck

Tour de France cyclists were left battered and bruised after a huge crash which followed a bus getting wedged under the finish line banner.

Britain's Mark Cavendish saw his hopes of wearing the yellow jersey dashed as he was held up behind the crash, describing the situation as "carnage".

Panicked officials had tried to free the vehicle, belonging to the Orica GreenEdge team, after it got stuck just minutes before cyclists were to cross the line.

Organisers decided to move the finish line back 3km so that riders would have a clear end to the opening stage of the race, from Porto-Vecchio to Bastia on Corsica.

But then they told riders they had restored the original route because the bus, which had apparently taken a wrong turn, had finally moved on.

Moments after the announcement was relayed to cyclists, a huge crash involving favourites Peter Sagan and Andre Greipel happened in the suburbs in the town of Bastia, a few kilometres from the finish line.

Pre-stage favourite Cavendish said: "What caused the problems was the change to the finish.

"We were hearing in the radios with 5km to go the finish was in 2km. Then a kilometre later, it's at the finish. It was carnage."

The crash felled dozens of riders, as Cavendish added: "I count myself lucky."

Due to the confusion in the final moments of the race, all riders were awarded the same time for the stage.

German Marcel Kittel got the yellow jersey after picking his way through the fallen riders.

A spokesman for Orica GreenEdge said on Twitter their bus driver had been following instructions when he ended up at the finish line.

"Joking aside, our bus driver is devastated," he wrote.

"He's an awesome guy and (unlike me) a great driver. He was being told to keep moving forward."

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Tour de France 'Carnage' After Bus Gets Stuck

Dengan url

http://sumpahserapan.blogspot.com/2013/06/tour-de-france-carnage-after-bus-gets.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Tour de France 'Carnage' After Bus Gets Stuck

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Tour de France 'Carnage' After Bus Gets Stuck

sebagai sumbernya