A result? We have seen way too many stages where a breakaway never even formed, with the peloton cruising through the stage at a local commute pace. Naturally, not many fans were willing to glue themselves to the TV on such days, which was probably noticed in the numbers too.
Race director and architect of the course,
Thierry Gouvenou, has a strong opinion on the matter. After seeing the spectacular racing in mountains, his resolution is to bring more harder, and presumably more entertaining stages. At least as long as teams refuse to put on a show on flat days themselves: "I think that we'll try to grow the number of stages like these. The sprinters stages disappointed us a little bit and we won't include that many in the future!," he told
Radio Sports.