Koen de Kort's http://northmeetssouth.org/gallery/picture.php?/2013/picture.php?/2013/index.php?/category/index.php?/posted-monthly-list-2013-03-11&comments_order=DESC#comments Tour diary: Stage 6 The stage today was pretty much pancake flat and looking at the profile you'd say it would be a perfect day for the sprinters and an easy day for the rest http://www.sog-mtgr.com/vb/showthread.php?p=1213542#post1213542 of the bunch. But the thing that can always upset a flat stage is wind and that's what we had to deal with today. A day with crosswinds is usually a day where a lot can be lost and almost nothing can be won. Initially there was little wind, but based on all the tweets every rider in the peloton must have read before the start there was a lot of wind to be expected in the middle part of the race when we were going through the Camargues, a very flat and open part of France near the Mediterranean Sea. Just one brave rider decided to attack; the rest of the peloton braced for what was to come later. As soon as we were neared the exposed part of the stage, where we would only have fields and wind around us, every rider and every team was getting nervous.
The teams of the GC riders have to be in the front because if your GC rider misses the first echelon that could cost valuable time at the end of the Tour and all the sprinters and their teams have to be in the front as well because it's a chance for a day victory. Nerves were rising because at any moment we could turn a corner, get hit by the crosswinds and the bunch could split. Every team was trying to stay as close as possible to the front, protecting their most important riders and trying to keep them in the first echelon in case the wind would be decisive. The speed picked up just because everyone was so nervous and there were always four teams on the front trying to stay out of trouble. The sole breakaway rider was reeled back in very soon and there were not going to be any more attacks simply because the speed was so high.
When we got to the exposed areas everyone went nuts and tried to be in the front resulting in even higher speeds, but no echelons, because the road was always entirely taken up by riders trying to move up to the front. In addition, no team was interested in breaking up the bunch, everyone just wanted to stay out of trouble. And that was the main problem of the day. We passed through small towns and had to navigate through a lot of roundabouts and traffic islands and with a bunch in mad gallop, there will be crashes. Sometimes there were crashes because traffic islands didn't get seen in time and sometimes because riders tried to move up on a shoulder of the road that suddenly stopped or because the speed was simply too high in the corners. Luckily we stayed out of trouble and we could prepare for the sprint as we wanted with the whole team intact.
Because I was feeling good again, I took my normal spot in the sprint leadout for Marcel Kittel, with just Tom Veelers between Marcel and I. We had picked the corner at 2.7km from the finish as a critical point where we wanted to be in the front and when we found a gap at 5km to go, we went for it and started riding on the front. Maybe that was a little bit too early but I thought we would be able to make it from there with a few very strong riders still in front of me. We went through the corner at 2.7km to go first and when the riders from Lotto passed me just before the last kilometre I managed to keep Tom and Marcel out of the wind so they could fight for their position in the line behind Andre Greipel, the sprinter from Lotto.
At that point it's just important I give Tom a chance to fight for a wheel without having to be in the wind when the speed is really high and as soon as he's got a spot in the line my job is done, in this case at about 1km to go. Unfortunately Marcel didn't manage to win this time; he had to settle for third behind Greipel and Peter Sagan. Of course we were going for a victory and we are a little disappointed but the Lotto team just did everything right in the lead out today and http://bbs.exalt-lens.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=142418&extra= we made some very small mistakes. Hopefully we'll get another chance to do a sprint again soon and hopefully Marcel can then take the win again!