Nevertheless, the lack of a good start list didn’t prevent a nice, eventful race on Sunday in Marseille. Let’s hope it is the same this week. The fact that basically no points are given on stages except for the winner may preclude all small teams to ride all day long for a 10th place in a bunch sprint. We shall see.

We saw: nobody tried anything, it was the standard 4-Conti-men & 3-minutes breakaway. Except that the peloton started panicking because the gap left by décathlon and FDJ leading the bunch was still important less than 20 minutes from the line, and wind was helping the breakaway. The breakaway first dropped Hänninen (🇫🇮 Nice), subsequently going faster; then Aebersold (🇨🇭 Elite Fond.) started refusing relay, which slowed the breakaway; he was then attacked by the other two, so he started relaying again and the gap stopped dropping quickly; he was dropped eventually (indicating that his previous refusal to relay was simply because he felt cooked). Huck (🇫🇷 Roubaix) and Vercouillie (🇧🇪 Flanders-Baloise, the man who never rides inside a peloton) made in into the short final climb located inside the last kilometre; Vercouillie who had climbed that climb better in each loop logically dropped Huck, but he soon blew up as the peloton was only a few dozen yards behind him.

Then Kubish (🇸🇰 Unibet) accelerated at the front of the peloton. Surprisingly, we saw another Flanders-Baloise jersey follow him; and no one else could follow, neither the 2 French🇫🇷 favourites Lapeira (Décathlon) and Costiou (FDJ, ex Arkéa) nor anyone else. At the top of the climb, with only 150 flat metres to go, Tom Crabbe🇧🇪, the Flanders rider which looked easy in Kubish's wheel, simply took him over and won.

Lapeira wasn't really my personal favourite, for I hadn't found his performance great, in his solo breakaway in Marseille 3 days ago: not creating a big gap on favourable terrain, being caught by Mifsud, and not having a second kick later. But everyone and even himself considered him a favourite, so...

Anyway he still made it in the second group after just a minor gap, as well as Costiou, so nothing is lost for any of them.

I see that Hardouin (🇫🇷 Roubaix) made a good 8^th^ place, after his good performance in the last Mifsud breakaway in Marseille.

Many little gaps (according to PCS):

• Larsen (🇩🇰 Unibet) in group 3 with Mifsud (🇫🇷🇲🇹 Polti) and Teuns (🇧🇪 Cofidis) at 5 seconds;
• Delettre (🇫🇷 Total) in group 4 at 10 seconds; that makes a total of only 33 riders within 10 seconds;
• group 5 is already 17 seconds away.