Tour de France cyclist walks away from terrifying mountainside crash
The Tour de France is a beautiful, inimitable and completely horrifying spectacle of sport. It's one of the rare athletic events where you can go see Sound of Music views of the French Alps and 30 men donate skin to a concrete median at 30 miles per hour in the same morning.
And unfortunately for French cyclist Julian Alaphilippe, he was the one providing the grim visuals during Friday's time trial race.
According to LeDauphine.com (h/t Washington Post's Marissa Payne), Alaphilippe was motoring along at 32 miles per hour when a rogue gust of wind pushed him off the road and up over his handle bars into the jagged cliffside.
Julian Alaphilippe of the Etixx-Quick Step team takes a crash in the Tour de France (July 15, 2016). He was unhurt! pic.twitter.com/5jzkUIs2Ln
— Histi Pics (@HistiPics) July 16, 2016
"The wind caught me," Alaphilippe said. "I did not expect to take a gust like that. It took me to the outside of the turn and I went straight into the rocks."
Alaphilippe walked away from the wreck with a minor cut on his thumb and bruises, which, looking at the Instagram picture he posted of the fall--seems like a minor miracle.
Never ride in the Tour de France, guys. Even t air can be your enemy in this race.
Dan is on Twitter. He's taken a spill over the bars before, and can confirm it's exactly as fun as it looks.
