Nervous Brailsford still welcomes testing Tour start

By Martyn Herman ZEELAND, Netherlands (Reuters) - Dave Brailsford admitted Sunday’s incident-packed second stage of the Tour de France had been a nervy one for strategists but the Team Sky boss said it was great for the sport. Just like last year in the hills of Yorkshire, the peloton has not been allowed to ease its way into the Tour with some gentle looseners. Instead, the race has already been at full-tilt and it has not even arrived on French soil. A baking hot individual time trial in Utrecht was followed by a 166-kilometre blast through thunderstorms and wicked crosswinds which resulted in the general classification contenders being scattered like the clouds rolling in off the North Sea. Sky’s Chris Froome, along with Spain’s Tinkoff-Saxo leader Alberto Contador, avoided any damage but defending champion Vincenzo Nibali is already more than a minute behind his main rivals after getting caught out as the race wound its way to the exposed Dutch coast. "This was 100 percent what I was expecting today," Brailsford told Reuters. "It’s exactly what the organisers wanted and the weather turned up on cue and created the suspense and excitement that they were hoping for and I’m sure it’s pretty exciting to watch, but a bit nervous for us. "It’s great viewing and I think these short stages, you know the Tours are going more towards them, these short exciting stages and it’s a good thing, from a spectator point of view." Brailsford said it was one of those days when any of the top riders could have struggled. "I wasn’t surprised (that Nibali and Nairo Quintana) lost time, not really, somebody was going to lose time," he said. "It was going to split and you never know where you’re going to be. "We had to work hard today and we’re lucky we have some of the best crosswind riders in the world and that was their purpose today. They did a great job. "We will absorb this tonight and see where we are at...but you can’t try to be too strategic or too smart because you’ll get caught out." (Editing by Mark Meadows; mark.meadows@thomsonreuters.com; +44 20 7542 7933; Reuters Messaging:; mark.meadows.reuters.com@reuters.net)