Apparently matching yellow bibs are stylish in Norway.

Bwahahaha!

terrible bad luck but this will be fun seeing Carthy and DM try to ride back on......hope they make it

Well done by EF there.

Very well done. Hugh Carthy is a great rider.

yup, Carthy is solid......so if LFF pops off here soon, who goes with him from JV?

Poor Dumoulin. Kwiatkowski even apologized.

nvm.......STUD move from Hirschi!

Damn, this is good...

Yes it is. LFF is back.

wow.......really wanted the kid to get Ala......left a little too big a gap looked like but what a ballsy ride and played it pretty cool

I’d like to revisit this prognostication— good for Ala, Pinot...

“Alaphilippe: no GC but has stage 2 circled for a stint in yellow, giving the French public hope before Pinot dashes them in week 3.”

Hirshi is a badass. And how about Jiggy Higuita sprinting for 5th?

UAE looked solid delivering Pogacar. With a mechanical.

And J-V disappeared when it went down. Hopefully just an off day for them.

Good call on Alaphilippe. And yes, Higuita gave GvA a solid run for the latter’s money

Nailed it. Chapeau.

Tomorrow looks like a showdown stage between pure sprinters and guys like Sagan, Colbrelli, Mads, etc.

STUD move from Hirschi!


Ride and race of the day in my books.

Keep an eye on young Marc Hirschi. He's the 2018 UCI U23 Road World Champion and he battled it out in the finale with to savvy veterans in Alaphillipe and Yates, and did not look out of place at all. If he keeps up looking this good - he could emerge as Sunweb's GC Man! Which would be good for a team that really does not have, someone right now on the team who you would say would be a factor in the GC, and with Michael Matthews left off the team they have no real designated sprinter either. But they are doing well with two Top-3 finishes in two stages (Cees Bol was top 3 on Stage 1), Hirschi is now in the White Jersey and as noted, could be a bit of a sleeper for the GC - not for the win, but for a top-10 place.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Still can't get over his jumping on Alaphillipe's move. Everyone knew it was JA's day to go and he had Jungle Bob setting him up. Still, Hirschi, 21 years old and he says I'm going too and pounced. Almost looked like he was going anyway. Then turned himself inside out getting over the climb, recovered, didn't allow JA to sit 3rd wheel, showed veteran savoir faire, taking a drink out of his bottle with 700? meters to go? Lots of presence.Awesome.

All the climbs are cat3/4 and 5 percent average gradient. Should be good for Sagan, GregVA and those types.

Was really rooting for Hirchi to still jump over LFF, very good ride from him!

That sprint between Higuita and van Avermaet was funny to watch, van Avermaet has 20-25kg on him and is considered a strong classics rider but he couldn't outsprint a climber.
Higuita for a punchy mountain top finish in the next coming weeks in the Tour :)

Seeing Tim Declercq driving on the front makes me feel like this season is somewhat normal again. Even though its not.

Caleb Ewen, Cinderella boy....out of nowhere......

that was a messy sprint. good thing no one was hurt

That was a crazy helicopter shot of the sprint. In other news, Sam sounded SALTY in his post race interview.