The chaos in the Tour was so great: images of the peloton…

Crash in the bunch and we are heavily involved with all riders hitting the deck. We are all back on the bike and chasing back to the peloton. #TDF2021

— Team DSM (@TeamDSM) July 9, 2021

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In other words, six riders of the Dutch formation fell: Soren Kragh Andersen, Cees Bol, Mark Donovan, Nils Eekhoff, Joris Nieuwenhuis and Casper Pedersen. Some of them even had to be removed from the lower bushes. Mechanic Martijn Don didn’t know where to start first. The Dutchman sprinted like crazy towards his riders and kept them out of trouble one by one. “Mamma Mia,” Don said as he got back into the trailer.

“You could feel the gravel on those narrow streets, so something had to be done,” according to Patrick Lefevere, who also had a victim with Declercq. “In the car they knew it too, but it was almost inevitable. There were still a few points that were not kosher, in the final also with some traffic islands that were not marked. It could be better anyway.”

“Damage control”

At Team DSM itself, they were also unhappy about the situation. Only ten seconds before the bend in question was there a warning for slippery conditions. “It was about the radio,” said sports director Marc Reef at the NOS. “We had to be careful and normally they announce that way in advance. Now we didn’t really have a chance to respond to that. It would have been more convenient if that warning had come earlier. It’s having repercussions now, especially since it went down. Then when something like this happens, you are only concerned with damage control.”

“This is the largest sporting event in the world and then there is no one who drives in front of the race in a car to warn,” said Cees Bol in a reaction. “Because you don’t have to be a genius to see that accidents would happen here.”

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