The hills of the Netherlands are rolling out ahead, a little farmhouse here, a church spire there, and under the blue sky and sun, a peloton snaking its way at a speed that it is difficult to follow, even with a motor.
I’m in the Shimano neutral service car and I feel like a journalist of the past, chasing after the riders while only half knowing what is happening in the race. The race radio shares sporadic updates. “A group has gone ahead,” Martijn Swinkels, the assistant race director, says. He lists 12 numbers but I recognise only one from memory: 21, Tom Pidcock. “The gap is about 25 seconds.” The race favourite and world champion Mathieu van der Poel was not in the lead
