NYONS, France – Tour de France riders, including race leader Chris Froome, sent messages of support to the victims of the deadly attack in Nice, France.
Defending champion Froome posted a picture of the blue, white and red French flag on Twitter on Friday and wrote: “Thoughts are with those affected by the horrific terror attack in Nice.”
France is reeling again after a large truck mowed through a crowd of revelers gathered for a Bastille Day fireworks display in the Riviera city of Nice, killing at least 80 on Thursday night. The attack, on France’s national holiday, followed attacks last November in Paris that killed 130.
“I’m not as satisfied as I would normally be. Cycling gets a little less important on a day like this,” said Tom Dumoulin after winning the 13th stage time trial Friday.
Froome, second to the Dutch time trial specialist, was in a similar dark mood despite creating bigger gaps on all of his direct rivals with an impressive performance. Froome was the strongest of all the main contenders, and limited his time loss to Dumoulin to 63 seconds.
His lead overall improved to 47 seconds on Dutch rider Bauke Mollema. Fellow Briton Adam Yates was third, 2:45 back. Froome’s main rival in the mountains, Colombian climber Nairo Quintana, was lagging by 2:59, and the first alpine stage was not until Sunday.