We assume that this photograph was taken pretty early in the race, seconds before they hit their first proper patch of mud.
10 seconds earlier it would look like a regular old cycle through the countryside, 10 seconds later and it would look like they had just been dunked in the River Thames and left out to dry.
The yellow rider on the left here is particularly eye-catching. His face is showing just the kind of expression you’d expect after having a bucket of watery mud chucked directly in your face.
