"Damn!! Which genius picked this finish location? The fog is so thick you can't even see the riders' faces!"
"This is so French. All they know is romance, and they can't handle a single serious matter!"
"This race is such a pile of crap!!"
"666, they let us see the first 139.9 km crystal clear, then made us imagine the final, most exciting 100 meters?"
"Damn it, did Bora win or not? If Huang Chong dragged the sprint for nearly a kilometer only for Roglič to get sniped in the fog at the end, I'm going straight to Bora's official account to flame them."
The moment Stage 2 of the Critérium du Dauphiné ended, it was not just domestic fans criticizing the organizers. Fans around the world were cursing them out online.
This race had been organized in an incredibly disappointing way.
As everyone knew, the most exciting parts of road cycling either came when there were several brutally difficult steep climbs before the finish, with top riders launching attacks one after another before eventually breaking away alone to win after repeated battles.
Or when no one could break clear throughout the stage and everything came down to a flat sprint at the finish.
The first four categorized climbs of Dauphiné Stage 2 had been fairly easy, so naturally, the decisive moment was supposed to be the uphill sprint at the finish.
Yet the heavy fog on Col de la Loge had completely concealed the most exciting part.
It was not only television viewers who could not see clearly. Even the spectators standing beside the finish arch, having waited for hours to watch the sprint, could not make out what happened in the final stretch.
Fortunately, the organizers eventually released the full stage classification in text form.
Primož Roglič, who