In his daily VeloNews diary, Will Frischkorn writes about the pouring rain and crashes that greeted them for their first day in the Alps.

From the diary: “I was sixth in our line, just behind Christian, and watched as each of my teammates hit the deck, then followed suit. A Gerolsteiner bike ended up below me as I was sliding and I clearly remember thinking “man, lucky this bike is taking the brunt of this” as the thing was just ground into the pavement for 10 meters. Then I realized the chainrings were in my hip; a little tattoo to remember the day by.”