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Danish world champion Mads Pedersen and Dutchman Cees Bol took the other places on the podium. Marco Haller from Carinthia (Bahrain-McLaren) arrived after 3:46:23 hours, at the same time as Kristoff in 23rd place.
Teams with strong sprinters made sure that outliers hoping for a surprise hit didn’t stand a chance. With Kristoff, however, none of the aforementioned favorites took the day’s win. For the 33-year-old UAE Emirates team, it was the fourth Tour de France victory of the day, the first since his win on July 29, 2018 on the final stage in Paris. It’s been more than nine years since Thor Hushovd, the last Norwegian to date, wore yellow at the Tour de France.
There were no large crowds
Due to the rain, the track was extremely slippery and drivers kept falling to the ground. French favorites Julian Alaphilippe and Thibaut Pinot or Bernal’s assistants Pavel Siwakow and Andrey Amador were also unlucky. The last crash occurred a few kilometers from the finish, so there was only a small sprint group.
Despite the growing number of corona infections, spectators were allowed onto the route, but in limited numbers. The 5,000 spectators initially planned could not enter the finish area. There were also no large crowds on the road.
Come up on sunday
The Côte d’Azur region belongs to the “Red Zone”, where the virus is particularly strong. In recent days, the number of infections had skyrocketed. On Friday, the French Health Ministry registered 7,379 new cases in just 24 hours and spoke of an “exponential increase”.
On Sunday’s second stage, again in the Nice region, he ventures into the mountains for the first time. There are two climbs in the first category to master, including the 1607-meter-high Col de Turini with an average gradient of 7.3 percent.
