Peter Sagan, again!
There’s little left to say about the man but as soon as we walked the last couple of kilometres we knew it was one for him – a sharp cobbled climb up from the river, across a cobbled bridge, past the bear pit then another nippy climb before the 1,000 metre, straight as a dye, pan flat finish straight.
We thought just maybe Cav could hang on but in the event they were going mad on to the climb up from the river and it was too much for the ‘pure’ fast men but ideal for those who come to the fore when it’s tough – Kristoff was well there and good to see Degenkolb riding back into form.
Bern was nice, the weather was beautiful but Switzerland isn’t really a welcoming place, a tad cool/off hand and there’s no bones about getting as much money out of you as is possible – 40 Euros when you cross the border ‘for driving on their roads,’ a beer is seven Euros and the digs, whilst OK, are costing double what they would just over the border in France.
At the Press Centre, where we uplifted our precious credentials, ASO were advertising their Japanese criterium – be nice to go see that but it’s not gonna happen!
Out on the finish straight the Vittel girl was cooling us down – very necessary on a day where the temperatures were in the 30’s.
Meanwhile, ‘somewhere in Central Switzerland’ Tony Martin and Julian Alaphilippe were ‘getting the miles in.’
If they were setting it up for Dan Martin then that didn’t go well.