it's always better to drop everyone......

Finishing as ‘the only one in picture’ as the Belgians say. Hopefully this will be Sagan unleashed.

Good ride from your namesake too.

That was impressive. Chapeau

Vintage Sagan for anyone who might have forgotten how complete a rider he is. Endurance for long day in break, dropped compatriots on climb, good descent and show of strength on run in. The tifosi must be going bonkers.

Good run-in despite typical barn door aerodynamics (compared to what we've been seeing from H-bar).

Also saw the Craddock was on the long list of DNS. Wonder what his issues was.

You'd figure on that straight run towards the finish he would have gone IAB or at least make some effort to get low (like McNulty in TT mode behind him), but that's maybe easier said than done after all day in the break (after a furious start). Peto can do whatever he wants. Nice win. Ciclamino battle back on.

He flew home to be present for the birth of his child.

Well that's a good reason! Unlike some other guys who've decided to race instead (forget the names, but there's been a couple of guys who said they were racing "with the blessing" of their wives.

I mean, I kinda feel like porte was justified in the tour, although props to craddock for going and EF for letting him.

Bummer, Pedersen is out of Scheldeprijs

Perhaps that was intentional?

Scheldeprijs:

Cavendish, Bennett, Ewan
Kristoff, Ackermann

That was a crazy run-in on Giro stage. Looks like the points battle will get interesting the next two days with better opportunities for Sagan.

Here’s hoping.

Will say, FDJ well oiled right now. ISN and UAE did strong work, and then they came barreling up the left side.

FDJ made it look easy.

That Sagan keeps coming second to Demare shows how strong he is but also seems to be an indicator of generally weak sprint field. Gaviria seems to have lost his legs and Viviani hasn't been anywhere.

Perhaps still dealing with lingering effects of Covid...

Might well be. Riding buddy caught Covid in March. Didn't appear as much more than a heavy cold but tests confirmed it. Seemed to bounce back fairly quickly at first but long term he hasn't recovered his form. Told me last week his lung capacity was measured at 85% of previous. He's a very anaerobic rider with an excellent snap, very good at cross and crits but has zero punch now.

Viviani was hit by a motorbike in the giro today, so for this stage he has a valid excuse. That said I don't know about excuses for the rest of the season. He was so strong in the European championship last year winning that in a classics style battle instead of "just" a sprint. Now there's barely even a proper sprint.

The curse of leaving Quick Step. So many riders leave and the magic is gone. Old Pat must have voodoo dolls of all the people who leave.

Sure, but that's like the curse of the rainbow jersey. There are also examples of guys who did not have an issue (Kwiatkowski and De Plus recently). And in many cases Lefevere simply did the right thing letting riders go that demand more than they are worth. They then go ride as the main man for a team and can't cope and can't benefit of the shared strength in a race. Huge respect for Vermote and I get that he wanted to try seeing if he could win if he did not have to work on the front all day, but sometimes that is just how it is.

It’s a day for the hard men in Italia. Could be some damage.

That's some nasty weather. Not too different from early May stages, but still... I can deal with the cold (flubber helps), but not cold + rain.

Man, that was a flat-fest. Should have brought out the tubeless wheels today! Feel bad for Padun. Was a day for the hard men with all 3 of the podium just grinding it out solo for at least 20k each...more for Clarke.

So, three days to de Ronde.

Let's hope that Pedersen's hamstrings are okay. Having him lurking will surely make the finale more tactical.

You know it's nasty when the GC guys have jackets on FOR the climb.

Tubeless would have been interesting today, especially running lower pressure for grip and of course sealant. McNulty might have been on them as UAE has been experimenting. NTT too; my buddy at ENVE was over in northern France last winter doing tire and wheel testing for cobbled races with Eddy Boss and Gogl. The riders were allowed to choose whatever setup they wanted (tubular, tubeless, etc) an settled on TL and pretty low psi.

this is a custom set up for TdG and Sagan to go........