Greig Leach

As a rule, I don't paint the crashes, and while the big crash that left Julian Alaphillipe (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) chasing the peloton was something spectacular to see, I'm sticking to that rule. Several riders called it quits after literally getting blown off their bikes on the gravel section of Strade Bianche as the winds whipped across the high ridge road. After doing an aerial summersault and his bike flying a good ten feet into the air, the World Champion had to get himself sorted as quickly as possible. Two of his teammates Mauro Schmid and Mikkel Frolich Honore paced him back into one of the chase groups, but at 96 kilometes to go he was two and a half minutes behind the leaders and nearly two minutes behind the main contenders. I am happy to say that despite the nay sayers commenting on the race, he was able to rejoin the race and have some influence on the rest of the proceedings. Ultimately, though, the effort to chase back left him too spent to contest the finale.