Dan McLay debuted at the Tour de France today with an amazing top ten finish.
The main break of the day included Dan's Fortuneo-Vital Concept teammate Anthony Delaplace. After the break was caught all came back together for the final 10km or so. There was a huge tailwind for the final long, straight, downhill and flat finish.
The sprinters teams ensured a frantic race to the line. Dan told us he was already a little bit further back than he wanted to be, but then within the final 500m there was a huge crash at the front of the peloton. Dan had to break to avoid hitting the deck, and went around the downed riders. Only then could he open up his sprint. In the end he crossed the line in ninth place - an incredible result for his first ever stage of The Tour.
Nervous and Windy are obvious but we asked Dan what he meant by 'Death'! He explained it's just a general expression they use for a stage that was in general really hard or 'sketchy' - i.e. dangerous.
Tomorrow is a different kind of stage and Dan is not expecting to contest the finale - but whatever the result we will be there to bring you the inside track.
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