Sunday should’ve been the day of Koen de Kort. The Dutch rider of Team Argos- Shimano was really looking forward to the fourteenth stage from Limoux to Foix, but unfortunately didn’t manage to get into a breakaway. On Monday he will get another chance.
De Kort undertook several attempts to get into an escape. “It was a tough day,” he said afterwards. “Especially trying to get away was tough.”
On Monday the 29-year-old Dutchman will have a new opportunity. On a course that suits him significantly better. Instead of the two first category col that had to be tamed on the way to Foix, the peloton on Monday takes on a frankly flatter course: with two mountains of the third and one of the fourth category.
The story of the fourteenth stage was of course about the tacks. The peloton got during the final climb troubled by numerous punctures. At least thirty riders suffered from a flat tire when they passed the top of the Mur de Péguère. It soon became clear that the asphalt was littered with tacks. Also Team Argos- Shimano was struck.
“At first I didn’t got it”, team manager Rudi Kemna said. “There were many punctures, but the asphalt was rough, with many stones and stuff. I thought that was the cause. But when cars and motorcycles also punctured, I knew there was more. Of our riders Matthieu Sprick and Koen de Kort punctured. Koen even twice.”
During the stage race director Jean-Francois Pescheux doubted whether or not to neutralize the stage. It would have been a good move, according to Kemna. “It wasn’t necessary because the riders themselves decided to neutralize, but I would have appreciated an intervention by the judges. These things have nothing to do with cycling. A race should not be influenced by these kind of things. Fortunately, none of the general classification riders lost time.”
