Greig Leach

It sure looked like Jumbo-Visma had successfully launched a perfect plan as they road away from the peloton on the final climb of the Cote de Brevill Bois Robert. As the trio of teammates, Wout Van Aert, Primoz Roglic and Christophe Laporte, crested the hill they found themselves off the front of the front of the gasping peloton with three and a half miles to race, downhill. In post race interviews, Laporte claimed that he had gone deep to get away on his own after seeing his teammates well placed in the peloton and then they just went with him. Personally, I'm not buying that story, it sure looked planned. Whatever the reality, the truth of the matter was they were away and no one had much of a chance of catching three guys who didn't really care who won the stage. More on that with the final painting of the stage. It has been nice seeing so many Ukrainian flags along today's race course. And every other race I have watched since Russia invaded Ukraine.