Yes, I was ok, the start was hard, a dangerous group broke away. And it was pretty ok to the finish line. But Cav is the fastest man. We will keep trying. We will see what happens. It was nice, wow. It seems like every time we came here it was different. Ten years since I last won here.
Pretty special. And in pretty similar fashojm. We were talking. You always get swept up by the finish. Why do you bring a full sprint team, and not go for the sprint? As usual the other team shares the work - Alpecin - I wanted a split second longer and I wanted to switch trains.
The world champion, Julian Alaphilippe, he buried himself. I am just taking om, I am just buzzing. Wind direction: W. Route profile: flat. Finish profile: flat. Stage winners 1. Philipsen and Bouhani were the two hunting down Cavendish, but they both seemed to cut across each other. Cavendish, as ever, as he has always done, read it beautifully, his only focus getting to the line. What an amazing comeback. Two lead-outs go at once.
Van De Poel tries to lead out his man. Van Aert. Van Aert is in there, and dangerous, of Van Der Poel. Van Der Poel shows briefly but soon drops back into the peloton. One of the Group FDJ riders comes off at the back. They have barely exchanged a word in all that time out there together. The gap drops to the ten-second mark. And quickly. A red house, as Jimi Hendrix once had it. Can anyone live with his power? The gap closes down to 20 seconds and the time for the breakaway pair is surely now short.
The break is staying away for now but is visible to the peloton. The gap is 35 seconds, and the chasers are just over the brow of the hill. The gap edges up again, and then back down again. AG2R get up there too. The same for me, James. I miss being able to go to the French campagne, even though everything is always closed when I do go. By the way, the break has gone out to 40 seconds, which suggests the chasing pack is getting itself together rather than a break for the border that will pay off.
