VITTEL, France: A nasty crash involving Mark Cavendish marred Tuesday’s fourth stage of the Tour de France, which was won by France’s Arnaud Demare in a chaotic sprint finish.
Replays appeared to show world champion Peter Sagan elbowing Cavendish, who was squeezed against the barriers to his right, out of the way. Cavendish slammed into the barriers and two other riders plowed over the British sprint specialist, a winner of 30 Tour stages.
Sagan, who crossed the line second, was later given a 30-second penalty that relegated him to 115th place on the stage. As a result, he dropped from second place in the overall standings to 15th.
“I get on with Peter well, but I don’t get ... if he came across is one thing, but the elbow. I’m not a fan of him putting his elbow in me like that,” Cavendish said.
“A crash is a crash, I’d just like to know about the elbow, really,” Cavendish added. “I’d just like to speak to him about it.”
After the crash, Sagan went over to see how Cavendish was and patted him on the back, while the British rider showed him his wounds.
The Slovak said later he had apologized to Cavendish.
“It’s not nice to crash like that,” Sagan said.
“It’s the sprint. I just didn’t know that Mark is behind me, he’s coming from the right side,” Sagan added. “Mark was coming pretty fast from the back and after I just didn’t have time to react, to go left, and he just came (into) me and after into the fence.”
A medical team quickly ran out to treat Cavendish, jogging into the oncoming stream of riders to reach him.
When Cavendish was finally helped to his feet, his jersey was badly torn and blood was streaking down his side. Cavendish rode in with a teammate after treatment, gingerly holding his right arm close to his body, with his right hand in a bandage.
It is has already been a difficult year for Cavendish, who came down with mononucleosis caused by the Epstein-Barr virus in April.
Demare’s sprint victory ended a long wait for the home fans, with the previous French victory in a bunch sprint at the Tour being won by Jimmy Casper in Stage 1 in Strasbourg in 2006.
“It’s extraordinary, it’s marvelous,” said Demare, the French champion who finished second to Marcel Kittel in the mass sprint that concluded Stage 2.
There was another crash earlier that delayed Tour leader Geraint Thomas, but the Welshman retained the yellow jersey since it happened in the neutral zone near the stage finish.
Thomas leads Sky teammate and three-time champion Chris Froome by 12 seconds, with third-place Michael Matthews of Australia also 12 seconds back. Sagan is now 43 seconds adrift.
Thomas scraped his knee but said it was OK.
“I hit the deck but I’m fine,” Thomas said.
Demare clocked nearly five hours over the largely flat 207.5-kilometer (129-mile) route, which started and finished in two spa towns, Mondorf-les-Bains in Luxembourg and Vittel in France.
“We’ve been working with Arnaud for a long time on sprints,” said Marc Madiot, manager of Demare’s FDJ team. “Winning in the Tour is the best.”
After Sagan’s penalty, Alexander Kristoff moved up to second place in the stage, with Andre Greipel in third.
After starting in Mondorf, the hometown of 2010 Tour winner Andy Schleck, one of the first towns along the route was Schengen, where an agreement was signed in 1985 that enabled passport-free travel in mainland Europe.
Then it was a long, fairly straight slog through fields of grain, passing near the medieval city of Nancy into Vittel, home of the official mineral water supplier for the Tour.
It was the race’s third consecutive stage of more than 200 kilometers (125 miles) and when Guillaume van Keirsbulck, a Belgian with the Wanty team, attacked from the starting gun there was no reaction from the pack.
Van Keirsbulck quickly built a lead of more than seven minutes before being caught with less than 17 kilometers to go.
“A really hard day,” Van Keirsbulck said. “It’s not easy to stay in the front.”
Stage 5 on Wednesday concludes with the first serious climb of the Tour. The 160.5-kilometer (100-mile) leg begins in Vittel and winds its way to La Planche Des Belles Filles with a short but steep finishing ascent that features a leg-breaking 20-percent gradient in the final meters. All of the overall favorites should swing into action.
Cavendish in nasty crash after elbow from Sagan
Cavendish in nasty crash after elbow from Sagan
Mane takes dominant Senegal past Egypt into AFCON final
- Former champions Senegal dominated possession against cautious Egypt
- The result maintained the dominance of Senegal over Egypt
TANGIERS, Morocco: Sadio Mane scored a 78th-minute winner to give Senegal a 1-0 victory over Egypt on Wednesday in their Africa Cup of Nations semifinal in Tangiers.
Former champions Senegal dominated possession against cautious Egypt and will face hosts Morocco or Nigeria on Sunday in the final.
The result maintained the dominance of Senegal over Egypt. The Teranga Lions beat the Pharaohs in the 2022 AFCON final and in a 2022 World Cup play-off. Both victories came after penalty shoot-outs.
Egypt captain Mohamed Salah was well contained by the Senegal defense. This was his fifth AFCON and the closest he has come to a winners’ medal is finishing a runner-up twice.
Veteran Senegal center-back Kalidou Koulibaly was yellow-carded after 17 minutes for fouling Egypt striker Omar Marmoush.
It was his second booking in as many matches and ruled him out of the final. The second semifinal will be played later on Wednesday.
Worse was to follow for the 34-year-old based in Saudi Arabia as he sustained an injury six minutes later and had to be replaced by Mamadou Sarr.
Senegal did more attacking in a cagey first half without seriously threatening 37-year-old Egypt goalkeeper Mohamed El Shenawy.
An attempt by Nicolas Jackson flew over and, soon after, teammate Pape Gueye was on target with a low angled shot, but it lacked power and was comfortably saved.
- Heated exchanges -
The rival benches became involved in heated verbal exchanges and some pushing as half-time approached, leading rival head coaches Pape Thiaw and Hossam Hassan to appeal for calm.
Thiaw and Hassan were then addressed by the referee and order was restored in the rival dugouts.
Egypt threatened the Senegal defense for the first time in added time at the end of the opening half when awarded a free-kick close to the touchline.
But the set-piece delivery from Salah slipped through a crowded goalmouth and out of play beyond the far post.
Both teams made changes for the second half. Egypt replaced Ahmed Aboul-Fetouh with Mahmoud ‘Trezeguet’ Hassan and Senegal introduced Lamine Camara for Habib Diallo, who had been cautioned.
As the semifinal passed the hour mark, the pattern of the opening half continued. Egypt were content to let Senegal have more possession, confident they would snuff out any threat to El Shenawy.
With 15 minutes of regular time remaining, Egypt had not had a goal attempt on target nor had they forced a corner.
Finally, with 12 minutes remaining, the Senegalese pressure was rewarded with two-time African player of the Year Mane scoring.
An ambitious long-range effort by Camara was deflected to Mane, and his low shot flew past El Shenawy and into the net.
