Dave was giving me the SMS updates on stage 2; when it came together I decided that it was between Tyler and Tom - wrong again.

Greg Henderson, another Columbia boy made good - how many wins is that, now? 70-odd!

He was working for Greipel, looked back saw he wasn't there, looked up, saw the line, sprinted - and won his first Grand Tour stage; simple as that.

I can't think of any other New Zealand Grand Tour stage winner.

At last, a big win on the road. Greg was the 2002 Commonwealth Games Points Race winner and 2004 World Scratch Champion.

Charly Wegelius was saying that the road conditions were grim on stage one - multiple crashes, which thankfully he stayed clear of.

Today's stage had more of the same with a chicane at the end which caught the top boys on the hop; but which the Vacansoleil train knew about and used to their advantage - albeit Henderson and his track speed spoiled the party.

I hope you've been enjoying Al's pieces - thought provoking stuff. He mentions that there are DS's on the race with "iffy" histories - one very well known DS, back when he was a rider, in the 80's, contrived to get himself banned for life for drugs offences.

That was quite a feat when your first offence back then netted you a time penalty and a suspended sentence. So how come he still gets a licence, gentlemen of the UCI ?

But I guess I was right about something; it's getting very hard to predict those sprint winners, not that we'll have to worry about that for a while - it's "Mini Liege-Bastogne-Liege" time, tomorrow.

A sprint is most unlikely!