I think one of the main reasons the margin was so tight last year was that Froome was trying to win while expending as little effort as possible, as he was saving himself for the Vuelta. He looked to have a fair bit in reserve. Obviously this year he has the opposite problem of having the Giro in his legs already, but at least he can burn all his matches this year and not worry about any more racing. Unless of course Sky are planning on winning all 3 GTs in a single calendar year...

Agree 50 seconds is far from ideal, especially with Bernal also having gone down so that's 2 Sky riders who have crashed, and the soreness normally comes up 2 days later, just in time for the TTT tomorrow!

Not only that but he always avoids the crashes. Demaire is not at the same form he was last year but I was surprised to see him at the end after flatting.
Interestingly Greipel was there at the end and didn’t sprint. Is he over the hill?

Griepel had a flat with about 4 miles to go.

I thought it was Demare with the flat. Greipel flatted too? At any rate, he was there at the front and had nothing left to give.

You may be right.

Nope definitely a weak sprint from Greipel. He has accomplished a lot in his career but is getting to old.

Kittel with the flat? Also, what was the deal with Degenkolb? He waved his hands during the sprint as he was overtaken by Sagan and then also pointed at him as he won. Unhappy about something or cheering him on (which would be odd)?

Something about dangerous behavior by Sagan, not sure exactly what happened though.

Clearly a much faster stage today - much higher normalized power / TSS numbers than yesterday...

Kristoff didn’t either. Looks like they started too far back and didn’t jump quick enough.

As if he everyday jersey isn’t good enough before he switches to green he also gets yellow for a day.

In post race interview he didn’t seem excited about have the yellow for 1 day. Lol
He looked gased. I think Bora will be taking it easy in the TTT tomorrow.

He was whining about Sagan in his line.

With reason - he almost hit the deck after Sagan swerved all the way from the center to the right, thereby pushing Degenkolb into the barriers.

Dege couldnt hold Demare's wheel, Sagz could close it and shut the door on Dege, it was even reviewed and no fault found.

Agreed, you have to assert yourself to win sprints. That is why Sagan has over 100 wins and degenkolb is a sprint pack fodder. Degenkolb had no chance anyways and the gap opened and Sagan grabbed it. Degenkolg could have fought for position but instead gave way and complained.

Exactly. He didn’t have the snap or positioning to follow Demare’s wheel, and Sagan had both. So did Colbrelli—he’s going to nab some big wins at some point.

TTT predictions: BMC, Sky, Sunweb, all within 15 seconds.
*edit: and Gaviria takes back yellow.

Dang, 34.1 mph (54.8 kph) for Sky team. Mechelton Scott only 5 seconds slower.

Nothing to do with the race result, but I got a chuckle out of seeing the driver of the Steve Porino motorcycle (NBC Sports). Old guy with a handlebar mustache and orange framed sunglasses like my daughter wore when she was five years old.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

I think GVA gests yellow, we will see how EQS goes. Does Bora have any chance at all? Lots of TT chops in the team if they wanted to be serious, but are they going to conserve for the rest of the week?

Bora has big engines, not impossible. GvA is a good call too. And if any team could benefit from the yellow jersey it's BMC.

I have a question.
If youre a rider and get dropped by your team and worried about missing cutoff, can you recover for a couple minutes and jump on the wheel of the next team that passes you for a few min, recover, and repeat with the next team that passes? Is that against the rules? Is it a faux pas?

Having said that, I think the cutoff is generous enough for these guys for that not to happen.

You cannot draft in any way with another team during the TTT or ITT. That being said you occasionally see this occur but often a penalty will follow.

QS just keeps on winning. That Gaviria guy might turn into a decent bike rider...

I remember watching Gaviria on the track simply ride off the front in sprints like it was nothing. He has transitioned extremely well to the road. Sagan had a rough day yesterday but clearly felt fine today. Dumb crash but EFD did a good job helping Uran. I did enjoy QS complain about the lack of cooperation in the chase.