MENDE, France (AP) — The Latest from Stage 14 of the Tour de France (all times local):
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4:35 p.m.
Among sporting events, the Tour de France remains unbeatable for producing astounding pictures.
Want proof?
Here’s video from Stage 14 on Saturday of a bungee jumper plunging off a cliff in the breathtaking Tarn gorges just as the Tour riders raced past: https://twitter.com/letour/status/622404462376693760
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4:20 p.m.
It’s “stupid” to ask Tour de France riders whether they are doping, says former rider Michael Rasmussen.
While leading the 2007 Tour, the 41-year-old Dane was dramatically ejected for lying about why he had missed earlier doping tests.
Now a commentator in Danish media, Rasmussen told reporters before Saturday’s 14th stage that he believes the sport is cleaner than during his era. He said it’s “sad” that riders today are paying for its long history with doping — and its pointless to ask them if they are doping.
“If you accept the condition that once you answer that question honestly, your cycling career is over, then it’s a stupid question to ask,” he said. “I have never heard any rider so far say ‘yes’ to the rolling camera, while he’s racing in his active career.”
Rasmussen said he didn’t regret doping: “I think that was a condition to be competitive in order to be on the podium.”
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3:55 p.m.
Steve Morabito broke a collarbone in a crash on Stage 14 and is out of the Tour de France.
The Swiss rider’s French FDJ team says he was taken by ambulance back to the stage start in Rodez where doctors diagnosed the fracture.
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3:40 p.m.
Richie Porte, a teammate of Tour de France leader Chris Froome, suggests journalists may be putting riders in danger by questioning Froome’s dominant performance and “whipping up all the rubbish that they are.”
Porte says someone, apparently a spectator, thumped him with a “full-on punch” on a climb in the Pyrenees.
Speaking in a podcast interview with Britain’s Daily Telegraph, the Sky team racer says “it’s getting to the point where some of these journalists whipping up all the rubbish that they are, they need to be accountable a little bit for our safety.”
Sky feels that persistent questions about Froome’s riding and whether he’s somehow cheating — which he insists he’s not — are adversely influencing public opinion.
Porte said spectators have accused him of doping. He said, “I’ve never taken any shortcuts and it’s just a disgrace that they are saying the same things about Chris Froome.”
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12:50 p.m.
A short but very sharp uphill finish awaits the 175 Tour de France riders who have set off from Rodez on Stage 14, bound for Mende.
The 178-kilometer (111-mile) west-to-east route winds through plains and hills on the fringes of the Massif Central region, with a swing through the breathtaking Tarn gorges.
The final climb isn’t long, at 3 kilometers (just under 2 miles), but is very steep with an average 10-percent gradient.
Race leader Chris Froome is expecting podium challengers who are nearly 3 minutes and more behind him to attack on that ascent.
Riders are also dealing again with brutal heat, with temperatures again into the mid-30s Celsius (mid-90s Fahrenheit).
