Greig Leach

With unbelievably dark clouds threatening to dump buckets of water on the heads of the peloton, domestiques and leaders dropped back to their team cars to get rain capes, vests, and warmer clothes. The rain rolled in just as the peloton reached the base of the first Category 2 of the Tour, the climb up Col de la Croix des Moinats. With the kind of rain they were about to ride through and the two descents before the final climb, I am sure many were worried that more crashes were bound to happen. Some of call this the "Tour des Chutes" the Tour of Crashes, but as Chris Horner (Lampre-Merida) point out, the first week of the Tour is always the same, and everyone always says, "this is the worst it has ever been". As you can see by Arnold Jeannesson's (FDJ) struggles, it can be rather difficult to grab a jacket from a car and put it on (right side out) at 40 kilometers an hour. Maciej Bodnar (Team Cannondale) had about half of the team at the back with him, the rest were up front trying to keep Peter Sagan up with the leaders.