That's a great rant Marc. but it's way off base. did you watch the stage? the group was whittled down to less than 25 guys. he was doing exactly what a GC rider should do. Sure, his move towards the end wasn't great, but does that mean he's inexperienced and doesn't belong? Not sure about that. 2nd at Paris Nice last year, 10th in TDF, winner of Dauphine this year.  He's been racing a bit longer than 10 minutes are certainly has the credentials to be a team leader. 

Talansky got third in a bunch sprint at last year's Tour.  The one, in fact, that Trentin also won.  In that, he went a bit early and was barely passed at the line.  He's also been pretty successful mixing it up in similar size groups in the past.  I think he won a stage in Paris-Nice out of a group of ten.

Watching him this year, I wondered if he thought he had the legs, stood up, realized he didn't, tried to ease out, but then was surprised by the slashing Gerrans.

I'm not going to blame anyone.  Especially as the long lens they used to show us the sprint does so much fore-shortening that it's hard to gauge distance.  At the same time, watching Gerrans go from the middle of the road all the way to the right made me wonder if he wouldn't have been better off riding straight to the line.  It would have been much shorter.

I think, argument aside, he rushed to judgement.  An error, I believe.  After all, now that we know Froome had broken bones, it's hard to blame anyone but Froome for his second and third crashes.  If he didn't ride into other racers, he might well have crashed into teammates.  

Curious what people think of Saxo's strategy today. Seems like the burnt a lot of matches and used a lot of effort for pretty minimal gain. 2 seconds and a 2nd place on the stage? Especially with the very difficult day they have ahead of them tomorrow and monday. 

He was about to take a selfie with some spectators in the background.  

"The last one, on Monday's stage 10, was pretty scary though because I was riding downhill in the rain and I pulled my brakes but nothing happened for two or three seconds. All I could see was a 90 degree left turn, a hay bale and a couple of people - and I wasn't slowing down.

I managed to scrub off some speed and the guy in front of me crashed and I toppled over him and on to his bike."

I'll be getting some new tubular race wheels...and they will have aluminum rims, with aluminum brake tracks that stop spinning when brake blocks contact them...suck it carbon...just suck it !!!!

 "Notice Regarding Counterfeit Tarmac Framesets"