March-April is really the classics season, when the cobbles and hilly one-day specialists come out to compete for their most important objectives of the season. They were a lot of crashes, and resulting injuries, which put stars out of their target races, a few surprise winners, and a three very dominant riders (Kristoff, Degenkolb and Valverde) that took most of the spotlight throughout. There was also some interesting stage racing, largely dominated by Richie Porte, who has gone from strength to strength this season in his lead-up to the Giro.
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