Ruben Plaza Molina wins treacherous Stage 16 of Tour de France

Racing downhill at breakneck speeds, Ruben Plaza Molina rode triumphantly into Gap as the solo winner of a treacherous Stage 16 on Monday that saw a teammate of race leader Chris Froome careen into a telephone pole and Peter Sagan finish second for a fifth time.

Froome’s Sky teammate Geraint Thomas, who is sixth overall, suffered the terrifying crash on a hairpin bend, after another rider collided into him. The hard bump sent the Sky rider thumping shoulder- and head-first into the telephone pole. He bounced off it and disappeared into a dark thicket of woods, with his bike, scattering roadside spectators who leapt out of the way.

Although Thomas remounted, rode on and finished, the hair-raising accident showed how tricky the end of Stage 16 was, with a long, winding downhill that riders tore down at speeds of 70 kph (45 mph) or more. It was on this descent in 2003 that Lance Armstrong flew off a bend into a field and Joseba Beloki’s wheels slipped on melting tarmac, throwing him to the deck and breaking bones.

The French rider who slammed into Thomas on the bend, Warren Barguil, said he wanted to brake but his finger slipped, sending him into the Welsh rider. Thomas tried to slow down but couldn’t correct his straight-on trajectory. The impact with the pole sent a spectator’s folded plastic chair flying.

“I was very frightened,” said Barguil, who rides for the Giant-Alpecin team. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”

Thomas said he was unhurt. So much so that when asked if he still remembers his name, Thomas jokingly replied: “Chris Froome.”

“I just got taken out,” he said. “I hit my head on the lamppost.”

“I was all tangled up in the bushes,” he added. “A nice Frenchman pulled me out.”

Froome said he expects Thomas to bounce back in the Alps.

“He’s OK,” Froome said. “He’s a tough guy.”

Froome was delighted to come through the stage unscathed and keep his overall lead. Tuesday is a rest day at the Tour. Then come four days of climbing in the Alps that will be his rivals’ last chance to unseat the British rider before the finish Sunday in Paris. Froome goes into the Alps with one less teammate, after Peter Kennaugh fell ill and abandoned.

His crash is a setback to Thomas’ chances of getting on the Paris podium with Froome. At the start of the stage, he was 4 minutes and 54 seconds behind his leader of Team Sky. But having lost time, he is now 5:32 back, still in sixth place overall.

Froome’s closest rival remains Nairo Quintana, still 3:10 back. Last year’s champion, Vincenzo Nibali, clawed back a few seconds by riding away from Froome’s group on the last climb. But the Italian is still 7:49 off the lead, in eighth place.

Plaza, 35, was riding far ahead of Froome and the main pack in a breakaway of two dozen riders. Froome was happy to let them go as they weren’t threats for the podium in Paris.

The Spanish rider left behind his group of escapees on the final climb, the mid-grade Manse pass, and held them off on the tortuous 12-kilometer (7-mile) descent to the finish at Gap in the foothills of the Alps.

Sagan chased after the Lampre-Merida rider on the descent but couldn’t catch him. Sagan thumped his heart several times as he crossed the line for his fifth second place at this Tour. Sagan said he got the idea to do that from the Leonardo DiCaprio movie “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

“Always second,” Sagan said. “No one lets me get away.”

Plaza summited the last climb with about a minute’s lead on Sagan. Sagan took huge risks on the descent to try to catch the Spanish rider. Over Plaza’s radio earpiece, his team kept him updated on the time-gap as the two of them descended.

“That allowed me to go down quickly but still carefully,” Plaza said. “The descent is very, very dangerous.”

As he crossed the line, Plaza sucked his right thumb as a wink to his young son.