Interesting, the pack is gaining...

Basically the same way he won Lombardia, just a little further out.

If I'd crashed looking like this, I'd have been done for the next week. Alaphilippe gets a new bike and catches back on to the race. Tough guy.

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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.

In what’s just his 4th season he’s already racked up 2 Tours, 2 Monuments, Strade, and countless stage races. Wouldn’t be surprised to see him add De Ronde this year.

That’s quite a distinct possibility. MSR as well, if things go his way

T Po is unstoppable. He also went down at some point, maybe right there.

The high five to his buddy before the finish was cool. What a kid. He's having fun.

I would be DEAD

That was brilliance by Kopecky in the last turn. Also brilliant, of course, being able to take multiple classic vV climbing attacks and stay attached. Her and Vollering are picking up the slack from Van Der Breggen's retirement.

He’s not only currently the most dominant GT/stage racer but looks every bit as good as the best one-day classics guy on lumpy courses. I.e. for good measure last year he picked up a bronze at Olympics between LBL and Lombardia and that jaunt around France. And to top it off, he’s helped himself to 5 Tour stages in just 2 years.

His stats page is going to be longer than MSR.

Having vdB as DS probably helps, too.

But you are right, to stay attached during the AVV attacks is something.

And to have the composure to hold her spot in the corner; impressive

AvV typically kills people with that long sustained power. I think these climbs were just punchy enough that Annamiek's typical tactic's didn't work. Kopecky railed that line brilliantly and shut the door on AvV at the end. Perfection by Kopecky.

Do we have a link yet to our standings?

Also, over in the Netherlands, there's the EasyToys Friesland Tour, a stage race event formerly known as the Healthy Aging Tour.

When I first heard the name, the really immature side of me thought: well, the new name sponsor really should have thought of a better name.

But in one of those man-bites-dog situations, EasyToys appears to sell exactly what some of us though it may sell (photo taken from Twitter post of Ellen van Dijk, by way of cyclingtips).

The best part of all of this is that Ellen replied "At least prizes are improving in women's cycling."

A great line. Second only to " I need ammo. I don't need a ride."

You can see Tadej in the pic that Alvin (Levon's dad) posted. He went down too, but (obviously) is unable to crash with as much panache as Ala.

I hope all those guys are OK. That was a crazy crash.

I know its not part of the pick-em. but who do we have for Paris Nice and TIrreno?

TA should be an awesome showdown of the youngsters:
Pog, Remco, Vinggegard

P-N: Roglic, Nairoman, McNulty

Benoot abandoned pretty quickly. Hoping it was precaution.

There are going to be some good sprinter wars PN and TA as well. Fabio and Cav are going to be racing each other.

Man, this first stage of Paris-Nice is no joke. Hammers dropped all over the place. Even Crocketelli dropped in what on paper is perfect terrain for him.

Jumbo-Visma...wow. Roglic, WvA, Laporte just lowering the boom.

Stage 1 of the JV training camp in the books.

Training camp indeed

THat made for good viewing

I'm having flashbacks to Mapei.

That was an amazing TTT.

And it looked to me like Roglic and WvA were only going 95%.

WvA is holding back for Flanders. He doesn't want to peak too soon.