The opening stages of the Tour de France are playing out quite nicely to the historical precedents of lots of crashes and masses of nervous energy being used in an attempt to avoid being in one of those crashes in the first place.
The opening day was typical of the genre. One minute everything seemed to be heading to a full bunch sprint, and then suddenly it was bodies everywhere and complete chaos with no one quite sure of who is where and what's happening.
Interestingly, most of the favourites survived the first big stack, with Richie Porte having the excuse that he was delayed by the incident, but Adam Yates was riding – and still tends to ride – too far back. Their respective bacons were only saved by the following misfortunes of Chris Froome and Nairo Quintana, which could have been bike handling related, bad luck or both for the latter pair.
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It's quite remarkable that in each Tour, the Colombian somehow manages to find himself two or three minutes off the lead before the mountains come along. And that's with a team looking after him. Just imagine the mess if he was left to his own devices, which he might well be on the Roubaix cobbles because his luck won't improve until his positioning does.
Mikel Landa has attached himself to Alejandro Valverde in the last half hour of racing, so he might be OK, but Movistar will be rightly worried for their designated leader.
BMC winning the team time trial wasn't a surprise, and it suits Team Sky just fine not to have the responsibility of leading the race straight away. Geraint Thomas might be a little disappointed not to be race leader, especially as it's contract time. However, given how the Welshman is riding, he can afford to stay calm and see how things develop. He holds his place at the head of the bunch much more easily than Froome, so one more mishap for the defending champion and things could get complicated for the Brits.
Brittany
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/philippa-york-analysis-nervous-tour-de-france-opening-has-been-typical-of-the-genre
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