Today's stage start in Oosterhout saw the biggest crowds yet. The town had organized local cyclists from a few different clubs to ride the first part of the stage so the entire town turned up to support their neighbors.
We had a fantastic time collecting autographs today. By now, all 5 Canadians keep their eyes open for me while new friends like Daniel Oss and Garikoitz Bravo now wave hello and of course I continue to greet my old faithful friends like Maciej Bodnar and Ramunas Navardauskas who said to me, “I feel like I see you at every stage of every race!”
Today was Jacopo Guarnieri's 26th birthday so we made sure to get his attention. He was pretty pleased that were celebrating his birthday and he really liked his birthday sign.
Gatis Smukulis had already signed for me but Fien had getting missed his autograph, so we were happy to be able to get him again.
Not only did the biggest crowd show up today, they were also the friendliest and most excited yet. Fien and I would cheer for a rider as he rode by on his way to sign on and then when he would stop to sign autographs for us, the people in our area would all give a big cheer. Spectators were telling each other what a great time they were having because they didn't know most of the riders before Fien and I and they hadn't expected the riders to visit fans. The woman on my right was supposed to be in the VIP section but her friend had given the extra ticket to a neighbor instead. She was disappointed, but after just a few minutes of watching the signatures on my flag multiply, she was much happier to be with Fien and I. In fact, she soon began to call to every single cyclist to sign my flag and even pulled Jon Aberasturi over to sign it even though he already had.
We got Jure Kocjan to come over and sign for us. The woman next to me knew that Euskaltel is a team from Spain so she kept repeating, “Hola,” to Jure and when he gave her a politely puzzled look, she said, “Aren't you Spanish?” He shook his head and said he was from Slovenia so I think this picture was taken just as I was telling him how much I loved traveling in Slovenia earlier this year.
The peloton pooled in front of us as they waited for the day's ride to begin. I spotted Robbie Hunter of Garmin checking out my “Argyle” sign and he laughed and complimented me on my work. Below, left to right: Klaas Lodewyck, Tyler Farrar, Gert Steegmans, Johan Vansummeren, Mirko Selvaggi, and Aidis Kruopis waiting for the start.
The course looped around the town so we made a dash to catch the peloton on their way to Brouwersdam. Below: Luke Durbridge wearing Australia's green and yellow stripes on the left, Taylor Phinney in the red points jersey immediately right of the car, and Philippe Gilbert in the world champion rainbow stripes to the left of the arrow.
Far right: Arnaud Demare in the leader's white jersey.
Center: birthday boy Jacopo Guarnieri of Astana.
Andre Greipel in the German champion stripes.
Right: Mark Renshaw of Belkin, winner of the first stage.
Left to right: Nick Nuyens, Chris Sutton, and Francois Parisien.
Today I collected 15 new signatures from: #6 Bram Tankink, #42 Bernie Eisel, #51 Pim Ligthart, #52 Mirko Selvaggi, #54 Bjorn Leukemans, #56 Frederik Veuchelen, #57 Danny Van Poppel, #74 Bob Jungels, #78 Jesse Sergent, birthday boy #84 Jacopo Guarnieri, #104 Raymond Kreder, #105 Ramunas Navardauskas, #128 Luca Wackermann, #141 Moreno Moser, and #173 Jure Kocjan.
