The dust had just settled after Stage 1 of the Criterium du Dauphiné, at least when I began putting these words on a page. The big race story of the day was that Tadej Pogačar had won the stage, though perhaps the actual story is that Jonas Vingegaard was second to him in a bunch sprint, and that both of them outsprinted an admittedly slightly injured Mathieu van der Poel.
For me, though, the biggest story yesterday was the surprise entrance of a wild-looking new Factor prototype aero bike. It has incredibly wide-set, and tall forks, a minute head tube for such a large frame, and all the usual trappings of a hyper-aero machine, the likes of which we have seen in recent times (though to not quite the same severity) in the form of the Colnago Y1Rs, the Ridley Noah Fast 3.0, and actually going back a fair way the Cervélo S5.
