The lead up to this year’s Tour de France was all about Chris Froome and the anti-doping ‘asthma-gate’. However, that news is becoming less relevant as the riders have now completed stage nine with John Degenkolb capturing his first ever Tour de France stage in the path up to Roubaix. The two previous days were claimed by Dylan Groenwegen, with Greg Van Avermaet currently in the lead overall. Chris Froome occupies 8th place but there is still a lot of cycling left to go yet.
Stage nine was problematic for several riders
The ninth stage was a dramatic day for many, including BMC Racing leader Richie Porte, who suffered another catastrophic crash that has ruled him out of the rest of the race. Porte has had no luck in recent years, with pneumonia ruling him out in 2014 and a bad crash in 2017, which was also on stage nine. This year a pile-up lead to a severe injury to his right shoulder and he broke down in tears at the realisation that everything he had sacrificed was for nothing yet again.
Change of game plan for BMC Racing and Patrick Bevin
This has a huge impact on the tactics for BMC Racing, as Porte had been the rider that their game plan had been built around. Teammate Greg Van Avermaet has spent a week in the yellow jersey but the next stages were to be all about Porte, so now Patrick Bevin will be completely adjusting his approach.
He said of the incident and its impact on the team: “You’ve got to adjust and it just keeps revolving and you’ve got to just play with the cards you are dealt.” Porte has had such bad fortune that many had suspected this could be the year that he puts all of that behind him, surely he could have a good run at it. It just was not meant to be and now his team need to try and rally to make up for his absence.