It was indeed a stage suited to Peter Sagan. What this apparently means is that everyone in the peloton becomes so monomaniacal about him that they effectively gang up on him. It’s about 170 against one. They’re not good odds.
Gallopin’ Tony was the man to benefit today but it would be disrespectful to say it was anything to do with luck. The man who wore the yellow jersey a couple of days ago was there at the top of the final climb, he attacked on the descent and then he attacked again when a small group of riders caught him on the run-in to the finish.
Sagan’s explanation as to why he didn’t chase Gallopin that second time pretty much sums up the situation. If he’d have followed, someone else would have attacked and if he’d then chased them down, someone else would have attacked. So instead he waits, at which point everyone else in the group just sits there and does nothing. Why work to engineer a situation where Sagan is sure to win?
Talastsky
Do you see what I did there? It’s late. I’m tired. I make no apologies.
Andrew Talansky rode almost the entire stage on his own. He drifted off the back early on because he was in so much pain from his recent crashes. Judging by the fact that he appeared to be crying for most of the last 20km, it wasn’t the kind of pain that goes away once the muscles get warmed up. It was the kind of pain which works its way into your psyche and leaves you a shell of a man.
Stage 12
Sort of similar, so another day which is all about Sagan but which doesn’t see him win. Oh for a half-decent team-mate with whom to share the work in the final kilometres. Here’s the profile.
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