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Nizzolo was 20th and van Rensburg 26th today. Just not good enough so far this season.........

Fantastic win by Alaphilipe. I think Sagan squandered a big chance today as he was the fastest rider in the front group and would expect to win 9 out of ten times from such a position in that group. Maybe he is just a bit short of top form after his sickness. Great ride by Kwiatkowski only 6 days after finishing third in the GC of the Paris to Nice stage race. I think he was not originally scheduled to ride today but was only asked during the week to step in for the injured Moscon.

That was exactly my thoughts too . At a time he seemed to go from rider to rider trying to do recruitment I was also impressed with the calmness showed by Egan... I am sure he must have been very tempted to follow Nairo when he attacked but the trust he showed in his team paid off. But, yes, like you said Nairo was also impressive and showed that he is far from over the hill.

He is just too chunky and if he tones down he will probably lose muscle mass and power. His time trialing is also not that brilliant even at his current weight. Personally I think the new breed of Columbian climbers and the Yates brothers are going to dominate the grand tours once the Froome/ Dumoulin/Thomas era comes to an end. Roglic might challenge them.

I read today on the official website of the team that Meintjes was injured in the crash and as a result did not make the cut off for the stage. At the time of writing they did not know how bad the injury was as he still needed to be assessed by medical staff. They also mentioned that Cavendish was forced to stop on the back of 2 challenging days and previous hard races as he is still working his way back to full fitness after his long lay off due to illness.

Apparently Meintjes was unable to catch up because he was forced to stop after a crash. Cavendish just stopped Not looking good at all for Dimension Data.

Luke Rowe is just about the best rider in the world to have in a team in conditions such as yesterday.

Milano Sanremo on 23 March.

The wind was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be but it certainly made the going tougher than usual. Maybe that is why the top mountainbiker Sam Gaze took overall honours?

Their run might end in 2 weeks time when Mr Sagan starts his campaign.

A bit of an improvement in comparison to last week for Team Dimension Data with Roman Kreuzinger ending 20th while King and Valgren made the top 50. Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas also showed quite good early season form by finishing 12th,

He was probably too deep in the red and full of adrenaline at that stage to think straight.

Lets hope for a better performance by the riders from Dimention Data on Saturday Hopefully Michael Valgren has recovered from his illness and will be up for the challenge. The team really needs a good result to get their classic campaign back on track.

Sagan can run but he cannot hide. Some or other time he will have to face the might of the Quick - Step team.... they are not going anywhere

Sadly yes.

Never mind the front pack.. all 7 DD riders managed to get a DNF in today's race.... Not sure whether they won a prize for that

Glory for Jungels.

Bob Jungels giving it a full go on his own in front

I was quite disappointed in the performance of Team Dimension Data's riders yesterday and expected a lot more from especially Michael Valgran (last years winner). The team also performed under par in the UAE tour where they failed to get any rider in the overall top 20 and Cav also never really challenged for a win in any of the sprints. Lets hope for better days soon.

The most reckless riding I saw all day was Vincento Nibali who put in a blistering fast sprint on the downhill section after the finish line towards the Sportsgrounds. He went so fast that the cops controlling the traffic at the main road intersection probably thought it was Valentino Rossi on his Yamaha. At least he stuck mostly to the right hand side of the road and did not put any cyclists travelling in the same direction into danger

If the South Easter pumps next week like it does today the cost per minute riding time might be less than last year.

Good decision. IMO only the bike workshops benefit from a very muddy mtb event.

Yeah, coolest event on the WP calendar by a mile. Once a person has an entry you love it even more

Great story. Besides Tom Selleck and maybe Mark Spitz no man should really wear a moustache imo

I can understand Sagan's frustration but he should perhaps focus on his own team's tactics and weaknesses instead of expecting other teams to race in such a way as he wants them to race.