[jyl]

Can we stop with the crashes already. I’d like the GC to be decided on the road, not in the ditch.

As of the end of stage 3, the main GC contenders are covered by about a minute (from Carapaz at 0:31 to Roglic at 1:35). Thomas dislocated his shoulder, Roglic lost a lot of skin and seemed hurt, chasing back on in that state will have taken a lot from them and Roglic lost an important mountain domestique (Gesink). Pogacar is unscathed, as is Carapaz. The latter is the clear leader on his team now, so he should have more guys working for him.

Very sad crash by Ewan. The replays hinted that his front wheel got touched by the rear wheel of the rider ahead of him, and that seems to be what the post race articles say. His fault, and he’s out of the Tour. Hmm, Cav probably not too sad. I’m not really current on the newest riders, but my feeling is that the level of the sprinters’ field is a bit off. It’s not like Tours past when there was Kittel, Griepel, Cav, and a bunch more top notch pure sprinters. There’s punchy classics-type sprinters like Colbrelli, Van Aert and Sagan, erratic ones like Bouhanni, and a couple more who aren’t top fast men. And old dog Cavendish who wasn’t even planning to ride the Tour. I think he needs to win early (today would have been nice) because he hasn’t been training to survive the mountains.