Greig Leach

It took a long time to get a break away established today. Finally after over thirty kilometers raced this foursome started to make a bit of progress getting of the front. I never did catch the name of the Ag2r-Citroen rider was. By the time my broadcast came back from the commercial break, he was gone. But leading the group is the ever aggressive, Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step). He was joined by Alexey Lutsenko (Astana-Qazaqstan) and Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe). The other three pressed on and were eventually joined by a rather large group. In fact, at one point in the first third of that race, there were as many in the break as were chasing in the peloton behind. With all of the climbs in the second half of the day, everyone hoped to either go for stage glory or get a head start so they would be ensured not to miss out on the time limit with the worst climbs coming at the end of the stage/