After yesterday's excitement, I woke up an hour before my alarm in anticipation of today's stage. The logistics of reality insisted that we only catch the sign on and not the race itself but I'm happy to take what I can get.
We returned to Ardooie, the town where stage 1 finished, and we watched the start banner inflate (there wasn't a whole lot else going on).
Like yesterday, the riders weren't in a great rush to sign on and began to wander in after 20 or 30 minutes. Cannondale was the first team to arrive.
Kevin De Weert is a lefty and he smiled when Fien told him today is international left handed day.
Niki Terpstra.
Today was the 25th birthday of Topsport Vlaanderen's Michael Van Staeyen so I made him a small birthday sign. He was really excited to see it and I even managed to wish him a happy birthday in Flemish!
Jon Aberasturi.
Russian champion Vladimir Isaychev was happy to sign for us and the random guy next to Fien who didn't know any of the riders.
As you can tell from his big smile, Garikoitz Bravo was super friendly when I called him over to sign my flag.
Before long, there was a queue of riders waiting to sign. Dutch champion Johnny Hoogerland descending the stairs while Marcel Kittel waits at the bottom.
My new friend Francois Parisien said a cheery “good morning” before signing in and waved as he returned to his team bus.
Another good Canadian friend, Svein Tuft, stopped by to say hello.
The queue kept growing so I cheered for Taylor Phinney who responded with a fist pump.
Behind Phinney in line was Dominique Rollin, the lone Canadian rider I didn't see at yesterday's sign on, so I cheered extra loudly for him. When he heard me and spotted the flag, he came right over and asked if he could sign it! I've asked dozens of cyclists to sign my flag in my spectating career, but this was the first time one of them has asked me to sign it. He was really pleased when I mentioned I saw him last weekend racing the London-Surrey Classic.
I got the attention of Luke Durbridge, Australian road champion, by asking him to sign a flag from the Commonwealth, which made him laugh.
Daniel Oss had already ridden just past us by the time he figured out who was calling his name. He seemed to hesitate for a moment–Should I bother to turn around or just head back to the bus?–but when he saw how excited Fien and I were, he did a U-turn.
Phinney had recently posted a vine of OSS dancing to celebrate a rare moment of sunshine in Belgium so I told him we were available to go out dancing if he had any free time in the next week. He didn't exactly say accept our invitation but you can see he appreciated it.
When Garmin rolled in as a team, American Tyler Farrar was pulled aside by the emcee for an interview in Flemish.
I tried to grab my argyle banner out of my bag to wave at Farrar, but the first thing I found was one of my Garmin socks (fortunately it was clean!) so I waved it excitedly at him which certainly got his attention and he happily came over to chat and sign autographs.
Koldo Fernandez seemed less amused by my sock but at least he wasn't too put off to sign my flag.
Nick Nuyens was my final Garmin signature of the day.
The peloton was now gathering at the start. Below: my friend Maciej Bodnar smiled as I cheered for him, Gert Steegmans rounding the corner, and Belorussians Aliksandr Kuchynski and Yauheni Hutarovich chatted.
When only a few minutes remained until the start, the emcee called for Marcus Burghardt and Theo Bos, the only riders who hadn't yet signed in. Bos arrived a moment later and signed in while Burghardt had to withdraw from the race for health reasons.
With a couple of minutes to go, the peloton sat around and made small talk. I'm always curious to see who is talking to who. Kittel and Bos hung out at the back and, when there was a break in their conversation, I called out to Kittel. He turned to smile and I think he expected me to ask for an autograph but instead I waved my Canadian flag and asked him to look after Francois Parisien, which made him laugh. I'm guessing that's not a request he receives every day.
The peloton.
Mickael Delage looked a bit tired of waiting around.
When the gun sounded and the peloton rolled out, Kittel was gripping a banana for the road.
Today I collected 16 signatures from: #15 Daniel Oss, #23 Kevin De Weert, #27 Niki Terpstra, #73 Danilo Hondo, #77 Gregory Rast, Russian champion #93 Vladimir Isaychev, #101 Tyler Farrar, #102 Koldo Fernandez, #106 Nick Nuyens, Australian champion #132 Luke Durbridge, #148 Elia Viviani, #172 Garikoitz Bravo, #176 Jon Aberasturi, #187 Dominique Rollin, #191 Laurens De Vreese, and the birthday boy, #195 Michael Van Staeyen. There is also one more autograph but I can't read the name! Hopefully I'll figure it out before too long.
