TdF 2014: Stage 5: Cobbled

Yes, that's a sub-sub-title.  Better than the kardashians.

COBBLES
Today had to get it's own entry due to a couple serious events.
First and foremost, this was a day that people (and by people, I have to imagine that I'm referring to people that aren't the cyclists themselves) were looking forward to, because the Tour organizers decided to throw down some old school, Classics-level cobblestone sections, the likes of which haven't been seen in the TdF in a long, long time.  And just because riding the TdF is already about the worst kind of torture humans willingly put themselves through, mother nature decided to make it rain all night and all day.  The result?

This

And also

Some of this

And also:

Lots of this.  Not the guy in the middle on the road, the guy on the left... no so much on the road

Yeah, it was a brutal day.  And though my man Taylor Phinney tweeted out some regret about not being able to ride it (WHAT??), and Tejay has some colorful words for his post-ride interview (starting with "It was insane"), mostly they made it out.  And the end result was a ballsy solo from 6km out for Lars Boom to take the stage win.

Biggest Moments

Nibali was impressive and in-form today.  Though I was a fan of his last year, I somewhat dismissed him this year, and he has proven that he is here to wear that yellow for a while.  It might be hard to take off his back at this point.

The key moment of day, however, was that (another) crash by race-favorite Chris Froome caused him to abandon.  As open as I said the GC was yesterday, I can't help but thing that this opens it up even more.  This, to go along with the abandon of Mark Cavendish, can be seen as a serious hit to race, or a serious door opening for another rider.  Kittel already staked the claim on the latter, and Nibali and Talansky, and Tejay for that matter, will take similar advantage.

What to watch for

Seriously, everyone hit the pavement today.  The biggest question the next couple days, is who recovers the fastest from it.  Still a few days until the first rest day, and as is the popular sentiment about the first week in general: you can't win the race now, but you can definitely lose it.

Parting Thoughts: What if the one you'd take a bullet for is the one holding the gun?  (Thanks, Fall Out Boy)