Today was a very special stage.  As usual the race started very fast. During the first climb I flatted in the rear, and it was very difficult to get back to the main group.  Lucky for me the pack missed a turn and the race was stopped.  The peloton had to turn around, a little later the officials stopped again to explain the situation.  In the mean time the weather was severe, there was rain,  hail, thunder and lightning.  You can imagine that the racers didn’t really feel like continuing.  We started slowly and after about 5 minutes Jimmy Casper, the leader of the race, stopped the group and called for a strike.  All the riders agreed untill we started the first GPM.  One rider attacked and…. off we went.  The race was back on.  Because of the bad weather, we only raced 80 km and I believe that most riders were happy with that.  On top of the Col de la Baraque (630m) there was still some ice on the road so to shorten the race was a good call.