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.
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!
