Finishing line chaos causes carnage at Tour de France

The organisers of the 100th Tour de France came under fire after the first stage of the showpiece event ended in chaos in Bastia.

While Marcel Kittel emerged to take the stage win and the maillot jaune, several of those left behind were fuming about the confusing instructions in the final kilometres.

The Orica GreenEdge team bus struck the bridge over the finish line – with the team insisting the driver was following the route under instruction from organisers – as the peloton approached town, and it was initially announced the finish would be brought forward three kilometres to avoid the area.

But, with the riders less than 10km away, the bus was freed and – moments after teams were told the original finish had been restored – a crash brought down several contenders for the stage win.

All the riders were awarded the same time on the stage, but that did not calm tempers.

“What caused the problems was the change to the finish,” Marc Cavendish said.

“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.”

Cavendish’s team-mate Tony Martin, the world time-trial champion, appeared to be the first man to go down and was thought to have suffered a broken collarbone which would end his Tour and severely compromise the Omega Pharma-Quick Step team.

While disappointed, Cavendish knew it could have been worse for him.

“I’m not the only one,” Cavendish said. “I’m lucky I didn’t come down. Some of my team-mates are a lot worse. I can count myself lucky. I am lucky compared to most.”

Peter Sagan and Andre Greipel, both expected to be challenging Cavendish at the finish, were involved too, with Sagan rising gingerly from a fall while Greipel appeared to suffer a puncture.

Team Sky were not immune either. Although Chris Froome – who had earlier had a minor accident in the neutral zone at the start of the stage – finished unscathed, both Ian Stannard and Geraint Thomas were caught up in incidents and Thomas was taken to hospital for x-rays.

Froome said: “It’s been quite a warning today. I don’t think any of us thought it would be plain sailing today but there were some pretty brutal crashes at the end there and it was just a reminder that this Tour is about much more than having the form and being here – it’s about staying out of trouble too.

“I didn’t see much – just the sound of braking bikes and shoes going onto the road.

“I just saw bikes flying around and people crashing all around.”

Team Argos-Shimano’s Kittel emerged from the chaos to win a sprint finish from Alexander Kristoff of Katusha, while Britain’s David Millar was fourth behind Danny Van Poppel.

Kittel said he had been unaware of the incident with the bus, knowing only that his race director was shouting into the team radio at a frantic rate in the final stages.

“I didn’t know there was a bus on the finish line,” he said. “With six or seven kilometres to go the race director was shouting in the radio but it was so loud with all the people and the motorbikes and helicopters... I couldn’t really understand what he said so I didn’t know about it.

“I’m pretty happy they could tow the bus away and make it work in the end so we could finish on the finish line.”

But, while everything worked out for Kittel, several others were left fuming by the confusion at the finish.

Lotto Belisol rider Greg Henderson wrote on Twitter

So at 6k to go we get told 3k sign is the finish. We use 3 men. 3.5k to go we get told its original final. Ufff. #confusingandfrustrating

— Greg Henderson OLY, BSc. (@Greghenderson1) June 29, 2013

Alberto Contador, seen as Froome’s main rival, fell and crossed the line in a torn jersey.

The Spaniard was said to be sore but okay to continue.

However, his Team Saxo-Tinkoff sport director Fabrizio Guidi was more animated, saying: “It was an insanely chaotic stage and it’s really a shame for everyone that the stage was opened in this chaos.

“We were confused, to say the least, in the car behind the field. First, we were told that the finish line was moved because of a bus blocking the road.

“We passed the information on to the riders, who then did the sprint. The moment later, the finish line was moved back to its original spot and then in all the confusion the big crash happened.”