Throughout the Tour de France, Australian professional cyclist Richie Porte will be checking in. Here is his latest entry, as told to ESPN contributor Rupert Guinness:
Stage 12: Montpellier to Mont Ventoux, 178 kilometres (110.6 miles)
There are limits to what is fair in sport, or what is not. And on Thursday, what we saw during Stage 12 of the Tour de France on Thursday -- when Chris Froome, Bauke Mollema and I crashed near the finish at Mont Ventoux as we were taking time on our rivals -- was clearly not fair at all.
I know many have watched the video replay of the crash over and over again. It was caused by a television motorbike grinding to a halt with about 1.2 kilometres to go due to fans blocking the roadway. I went straight into the motorbike with Froome and Mollema following.
At the end of the day, the right decision was made to give myself and Froome the same time for the stage as Mollema, which meant Froome kept the leader's yellow jersey. As for me, I gained some places on the overall classification, moving up from 14th to 11th overall, still 2:22 behind Froome.
The race jury's decision was one it had to take. The Tour has become out of control with the crowd numbers, and their behaviour has become increasingly dangerous.
Look, I really love the fans, and 99 percent of them are brilliant. I agree that you come to the race to have a good time, but you don't need to be running beside the riders, you don't need to be pushing riders, hitting riders. Things have got to change. With what happened Thursday, I can't believe there weren't more barriers there. (Editor's note: Because the distance of Stage 12 was shortened due to gale-force winds, organizers had not brought more barriers down from the initial finish at the summit of Mont Ventoux.)
So what can be done to avert a repeat of Thursday's fiasco? Who knows ... the police were there. Why weren't they being utilised more? But right now, I want to resume racing the Tour, hoping simultaneously that troubles like Thursday's are behind me.
I was lucky that I was not more seriously injured in the stack. I have trained so hard for this. Yeah, OK, now I get the same time as Mollema on the stage ... but I also crashed, and now I'm sore on the eve of such a crucial stage -- Friday's Stage 13, a 37.5-kilometre time trial from Bourg Saint Andeol to La Caverne du Pont d'Arc.
In the morning, I will see how exactly I am feeling. I haven't taken much skin off or anything, but the fact of the matter is, it shouldn't have happened. That is what hurts the most.