Greig Leach

The feared high winds of the Netherlands did appear along with some rather harsh cold rain. At one point the sky had actually turned purple. For some the winds played havoc on their Tour aspirations including Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar). The pair where consider two of the top four to win the 102nd Tour de France, but the weather seemed to have different ideas. Nibali had a charmed 101st Tour, seemingly never putting a pedal wrong, but today it seemed that he couldn't catch a break. Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) hit the front of the group trying his hardest to bring the Italian National Champion back up to the front group (and trying to keep the Quintana group from catching up to them). In the end, the two joined together, but still lost almost two minutes to Chris Froome (Team Sky), Alberto Contador (Tinkoff Saxo) and the American, Tejay van Garderen (BMC).