Greig Leach

There are many reasons that I love women's cycling, but mainly I love it because of the compassion that the riders feel for each other. And that they take the opportunity to show it to each other. Admittedly, this was inside of the final three kilometers that there was a pile up of riders as they crossed one of the many bridges in downtown Rotterdam so there was no risk of losing time. Nevertheless, it was nice to see Josie Talbot (Cofidis) reach down to check on Amber Pate (Liv-Alula-Jayco) before getting back to racing. Pate seemed to appreciate the gesture, claimed she was fine, and found her mechanic and a new bike fairly quickly. All of the riders who went down, got up and finished the stage. Unfortunately for them, they have an individual time trial in just a few hours time.