NICE, France (AP) — Known for its sunny weather, the seaside city of Nice looked more like a treacherous ice rink on Saturday as heavy rain and storms played…
NICE, France (AP) — Known for its sunny weather, the seaside city of Nice looked more like a treacherous ice rink on Saturday as heavy rain and storms played havoc with Tour de France riders on the opening day of cycling’s marquee race, causing inevitable crashes. The pouring rain in the Riviera resort following a long spell of hot and dry weather particularly affected defending champion Egan Bernal’s Ineos team. Two of the Colombian climber’s key teammates — Pavel Sivakov and Andrey Amador — were involved in pileups while several overall contenders including Frenchman Thibaut Pinot and Colombian climber Nairo Quintana also went down. “The Tour is always tense in the opening days, but with so many crashes it was grueling and dangerous,” said Yvon Ledanois, sports director at Arkea-Samsic. “The most important thing for us it that Nairo did not lose time.” Amador and Sivakov, who were included on the Ineos roster with the mission to support Bernal in the big mountain stages scheduled later in the race, even fell off twice.
