With the usual early race nerves it has been a few days peppered with crashes. There were the comedy moments such as when a rider (who I have forgotten to note down) rode slap bang into another who had stopped in the road, and there have been big pile-ups at some decisive moments, as riders jostle to get into the best lines on tight roads.
The organisers were perhaps lucky to not have a large mess on their hands as stage 4 headed over a bridge that they had helpfully split in half, leaving enough space for half the peloton to nip onto the other side and meaning the riders themselves had to deliberately calm the race down for the crossing.
Elsewhere there were sugar-crashes as both Heano and Sanchez put their poor performance and likely loss of any hope in the GC down to not eating enough on stage 2. As they struggled for energy they dropped minutes on the first climb of the entire race.
In other news, Chris Horner rode into the record books with his win on stage 4 as the oldest rider ever to win a Grand Tour stage and the oldest to wear a leader’s jersey as well.
Stage four saw another uphill finish and a win for Moreno, and a controversial decision about a split in the pack at the finish gave Nibali his race lead back, even if he didn't really want it just at this stage of the race.
Stage 5 allowed the sprinters a go and finally gave everyone a flat finish option. A break went out as ever and was kept in check for the day. It was caught, surprising literally noone and then Michael Matthews took a win to deny a late kick from world champion Gilbert. Orica are always a sprint team and so it's nice to see them win the stages they should get.
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