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Eneco Tour team presentation

Posted by on August 11, 2013

Before the week long Eneco Tour travels through Belgium and the Netherlands, it got started tonight with the team presentation in Koksijde.

 

To get the crowd excited, the emcees had children throw hats into the crowd. One of them nailed me right in the eyeball, but it was just a temporary injury and shouldn’t interfere with my spectating.

 

The first team was Accent Jobs Wanty.

 

Euskaltel-Euskadi.

 

Topsport Vlaanderen.

 

Katusha.

Latvian Gatis Smukulis.

 

FDJ.

The first of 5 Canadians riding the Eneco Tour to be introduced was Dominique Rollin and he seemed pretty pleased I’d waved my flag for him.

 

Orica GreenEdge. I had my inflatable guitar and Canadian flag ready and Svein Tuft (far right) spotted me right away (we were in the front row…) and he was happy to have the support!

 

Lampre. Today is Winner Anacona Gomez’s 25th birthday so we waved a small “Feliz cumpleaños, Winner!” sign. A couple of teammates noticed it before he did and pointed it out to him. I’m guessing it’s the first time a random fan has made Winner (second from the right, and yes, his name really is Winner) a sign in awhile because he was really excited!

 

AG2R.

Another Canadian, Hugo Houle, and he was happily surprised to have support.

 

Movistar.

 

Saxo Bank Tinkoff.

 

Cannondale. I was really excited to see my favorite Polish rider, Maciej Bodnar (first rider on the left), again and I yelled pretty loudly for him. I think he may have recognized me from always cheering for him at the Tour de France!

Guillaume Boivin, the penultimate Canadian presented tonight, burst into a huge grin when he spotted the Canadian flag.

 

Garmin(!). The team I’m always happiest to see! Left to right: Robbie Hunter, Koldo Fernandez, and Tyler Farrar.

Nick Nuyens, Ramunas Navardauskas, and Raymond Kreder.
Johan Vansummeren and Alex Rasmussen.

 

Astana.

 

Vacansoleil.

 

Sky. They didn’t give a reason why but Bradley Wiggins was absent from the team present, which was a bit disappointing but I was mostly happy to see my favorite Sky cyclist, Bernie Eisel (far right and second picture).

 

BMC. The Belgian time trial championship was held tonight so Philippe Gilbert couldn’t make it to the presentation unfortunately.

 

Taylor Phinney was having a good hair day.

 

Argos Shimano.

Marcel Kittel and Koen de Kort, both also having a good hair day.
While most of the fans were checking out Kittel’s legs (tree trunks), I was admiring the scars on Tom Veelers’ knees.
In fact, I was so focused on Veelers’ scars that I didn’t have my flag ready for Quebec’s Francois Parisien! Oops! Fortunately, the emcee had taken to pausing before introducing each of the Canadians after he couldn’t help but noticing Fien and I cheering for Rollin, so we didn’t miss our chance to cheer for Parisien. Parisien was so thrilled that he took out his phone and took a snapshot of Fien and I with my Canadian flags!

 

This is the photo Francois took!

 

RadioShack-Leopard Trek. Stijn Devolder, Maxime Monfort, and Jan Bakelants had to miss the team presentation due to the time trial championship.

 

Lotto-Belisol.

 

Belkin.

 

Defending Eneco champion Lars Boom.

 

Omega Pharma-Quick Step.

 

The presentation was good fun and I’m looking forward to a week of great stage racing!

 

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