Today's stage:
A long (206 km), flat stage set up for the sprinters (which is
all that can every really exist in Denmark outside of a time trial
and that was yesterday).
Who
won today's stage? Mark
Cavendish (Team Sky) is the best sprinter in the world. And he won
the first stage with fresh legs. No shock there, especially since
there were no mountains to deal with today. Cavendish's former
teammate at HTC-High Road Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) was second.
What matters in
the GC race? Nothing at all. It was a sprint stage. Things don't
change on these stages. Current leader Taylor Phinney (BMC) had a
mechanical issue under 10 km from the finish but was paced back to
the peloton by his teammates.
Biggest
surprise: The breakaway was caught so early. Yesterday, I said
the breakaway would be caught with around 15-20 km to go. I was
partially right. The first breakaway was caught well before then. And
then Lars Bak's (Lotto-Belisol) single man attempt was caught at 15
km to go.
Biggest
disappointment: What were the organizers thinking putting a 90
degree turn in the final km. That is just asking for a crash and that
is exactly what happened. The biggest name caught in the crash was
Rabobank sprinter and recent double stage winner in Turkey Theo Bos.
Other
items of note: Tomorrow's
stage will be raced in honor of Wouter Weylandt who died in a crash
during stage 3 of last year's Giro... Also, the Mayor or tomorrow's
host city of Horsens died of a heart attack today.
What
is coming tomorrow? Another
day in Denmark, another sprint. That said, I am going with Tyler
Farrar (Garmin-Barracuda) over Cavendish. Farrar will have extra
motivation to win on the tribute day for his best friend and training
partner Weylandt.
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