A pretty crazy day yesterday. Pretty standard fare until about 30km to go and then the threat of crosswinds caused crashes but no echelons. World Champ Elisa Balsamo towed a strong group clear but her leader was obliterated by Mariane Vos.
Worth taking a moment to think about Vos's palmares - 241 pro wins including Olympic golds, a whole bunch of world champs and 3 GC wins at the Giro. I think it's fair to say that the yellow jersey could never be complete until it had rested on her shoulders.
On to today:
I've been excited about this stage since I first looked at the route. It takes a very similar route to the stage of the mens' tour where Julian Alaphillipe won his first yellow jersey - one of my favourte days of racing that year.
Today's the chance for someone to take some big risks to make time on GC and we could see some audacious moves for the sstage. Expect Movistar and SD Works to try and keep a lid on things while Canyon SRAM, Jumbo Visma and Trek Segafredo let off the fireworks.
Here's what Abby Mickey thinks over on CyclingTips
That Nicole Frain crash was getting a lot of traction for being very dangerous riding - trying to weave through the aftermath of a crash at high speed. Surprised she wasn’t dsq’ed overnight for it.
https://twitter.com/dukster777/status/1551571262715084800?s=20&t=PoIy1Ae3xvOJI3nSrCm1Xw
That Nicole Frain crash was getting a bit of traction for being very dangerous riding
I did wonder how she'd arrived on scene at Mach 2. Didn't enjoy yesterday, all those crashes were very upsetting to watch. Stunning finish from Vos though.
Looks like she was being towed back onto the peloton by a team mate, and was head down going hard. The team mate is the one who shot off to the left doing somersaults and then was pictured looking dazed (probably looking for her bike), but Frain thought she could make it through the gaps and got it wrong.
Starting to kick off just now. Attack time!
Crash-tastic!
Just caught the finish on catch-up. Absolutely incredible win from Ceciile Uttrup Ludwig who timed her effort to perfection, making The Greatest Cyclist of All Time™ look like a Cat 4 in the sprint.
Here's her interview (CW: swearing) which absolutely underlines the passion it takes to win at this level:
https://twitter.com/LeTourFemmes/status/1551957155057655809?s=20&t=gzvdyuE2KG6noYkZslMvyg
Probably going to watch that finale 10 times later.
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