Andre Greipel’s legs and bike continue to work well

Greipel wins! Take that, pedals!

Cycling is a messy sport. Given a clear run, Marcel Kittel would win every sprint in this race. Even Andre Greipel says his countryman is the quickest sprinter by some margin. Yet as things stand, Kittel has two wins and Greipel also has two wins.

It wasn’t Kittel’s legs that let him down on this occasion, it was his bike – with just 5km to go.

So it goes.

The final sprint was into a headwind and Greipel hid behind people until the last possible moment. It actually seemed he’d left his effort too late, but then suddenly in the last couple of hundred metres, there he was, weaving around and roaring past everyone like the beast that he is.

Anything else to report?

Nope.

Stage eight

Flat, then a couple of nasty bobbles, then up and down a mountain. The mountain is a 10km climb, 6.4km of which is on dirt roads, with double digit gradients for a couple of kilometres in the middle. I expect to see Mikel Landa on this one.