Greig Leach

There are so many complications when the skies open up on the peloton. For the riders the rain brings dangers roads where a slick painted line on the road can leave you sliding butt first across the road or the grit that has washed onto the tarmac can send slivers into your tires leaving you with a flat and a hard chase back onto the peloton after a wheel change. And then there is the misery of 5 hours of wet feet, cold and the constant spray of dirty ditch water being sprayed up into your face from the bikes, motorcycles and support vehicles that form the modern peloton. For those of us who are covering the race or watching as avid fans, with race capes that cover numbers, it can be very difficult to tell who is who, or even what team the riders are on. Race organizers have attached transponders to the cyclist's bikes, but even that method fails when a rider has to have a bike change.