Except it's not.

2011:

• Bradley Wiggins crashes out of the race.
• Chris Horner crashes himself into amnesia.
• Jurgen Van Den Broeck breaks collarbone.
• Johnny Hoogerland and Juan Antonio Flecha are run over by a VIP car.
• Jani Brajkovic, Levi Leipheimer, Robert Gesink, Tom Boonen and others crash themselves into limited condition.

• Two riders crash in the prologue on the wet streets of Rotterdam.
• Stage 1 sees a dog wander on the course, causing a pileup.
• Stage 2 is neutralized after a moto crash and oil leak turns the road into a skating rink, to the dismay of many, including a few broken Garmin bones.
• Stage 3, on the cobblestones of northern France, sees Frank Schleck break his collarbone and others go down.

Every year feels like it's worse, but really it's more of the same. It isn't easy to compare one disaster to another without disrespecting the suffering involved, so I won't go there. I'm merely suggesting that every year we think it's the worst because we don't tend to go back in our minds and fully appreciate how bad it was a year ago, or two years ago. Me, I block a lot of it out. Someday we will have a Week 1 where very few incidents happen and the GC and other exciting competitions aren't marred by bad luck to the riders, but when that happens I firmly resolve to do a big post on how unbelievably lucky we and they are. Because stuff like this week? That's the norm.