I guess a lot of people dont really understand the sport and racing tactics is what we can conclude.
UAE paced the hardest climb to see what would happen. Then didnt see any reason to continue after that. Still the effort of todays stage could be felt tomorrow or later in the week.
I think a lot of riders will say it was a hard day.
This stage was never gonna create fireworks or the Vino option and criticize any team today would be dumb.
It was a very good first stage imo and great start of the race with Bardet winning. Getting to ride in yellow for the first time, I believe. Awesome.
I think tomorrow could be more fun but we will have to see.
I think tomorrow is more conducive to racing too and I don't think we could have realistically asked for much more out of today.
The 2020 example got more up people's noses (and mine in particular) because not only was the spectacle an absolute embarrassment, but riders were out there claiming that it was a hard day when they'd demonstrably not put in any effort whatsoever (and in fairness to
that Sepp Kuss interview that started it all, at least he wasn't claiming to have worked hard, or in fact, at all, that day).
Nowadays we're kind of used to riders phoning it in and then telling us what a hard day's work they've done so it seems kinda quaint, but at the time - especially as we'd been starved of racing all year long - it rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way.
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