GPCQM Quebec

The clouds this morning looked like they were going to cooperate for the 201 kilometer race which would take the peloton on a 16 lap circuit through Quebec City.

 

My brother, who I call Hermano, and I scouted out the team presentation area and parked ourselves in what we hoped would be a good spot to try to catch the peloton’s attention. Pay dirt!

 

David Veilleux told me he remembered me from the Tour de France as he signed my flag. Since he announced his retirement earlier this week and is from Quebec, the local fans around me were thrilled to have Veilleux in front of them.

 

My pal Frank Parisien rode right up to me and started to hand out his rider cards. He’s another Québécois rider so, again, my fellow spectators were super excited.

 

I had cheered for Zach Bell, the current Canadian national road champion, as he rode by earlier in the morning, so when he had to pass me again, he came straight over to sign.

 

I continued to impress the other fans by getting Québécois rider Hugo Houle to sign my flag.

 

Sky has always been a hard team to get autographs from but today was my lucky day! Jonathan Tiernan-Locke is a young rider with a promising future.

 

Geraint Thomas, who rode the Tour de France with a broken pelvis.

 

Joe Dombrowski is a baby-faced American who shows tremendous potential.

 

Dominique Rollin saw me and laughed that I was at all the races after he first meet at Eneco Tour.

 

Sky was still in the area and I had to give it a try when I saw Chris Froome. Much to my surprise, he came over! As he autographed my flag, I told him I had seen him in July in a little race in France and that I thought I remembered he had had a decent result, which got a good chuckle out of the Tour de France champion.

 

At the Tour de France, I met Uzbek Sergey Lagutin just once. Of course I cheered for him whenever I saw him but we only ever talked once at stage 5, so I couldn’t believe it when he came over and joked that I must be following him. I’ve said it before but it astounds me how so many riders seem to really see what’s going on around them and take in their surroundings, as opposed to being focused to the point of shutting out the world around them right before embarking on a monster cycling stage.

 

When I asked Fumiyuki Beppu if he was enjoying Canada, he said, “Yes,” before he leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, “It’s better than France!”

 

I told Rui Costa that I was at both of his stage wins at the Tour this summer and that memory got a huge smile out of him.

 

Meanwhile, each team was presented to the fans on stage. Marcus Burghardt flashed a big smile when I cheered his name.

 

When I first saw the start list a couple of weeks ago, I was awfully excited because I love to see Jan Bakelants race and he is wonderfully friendly. I got his attention and he rode over to me and promptly made himself comfortable. He hung out for a good long time, just chatting about racing and Canada. In fact, I missed getting autographs from other riders because he stayed put for so long, but I wasn’t about to complain. He also suggested that I name my firstborn Jan which I will now bear in mind should I ever have children!

 

Cannondale was waiting their turn to go on stage and when I called for Peter Sagan to come over, everyone around me started yelling and cheering for Sagan, who kindly signed my flag.

 

I like Sagan enough, but there are actually several Cannondale riders ahead of him on my list and I got to give a gift to one of them today! If I’ve learned one thing from following Ted King on twitter it’s that the man appreciates maple syrup, being a good New Hampshire boy. I picked up a box of maple syrup cookies here in Quebec City with the hopes of getting a chance to give them to Ted. I figured the odds were not in my favor but I had to give it a go. I spotted Ted maybe 15 feet away and called his name, holding the box of cookies out in front of me. He casually turned to see who was talking to him and when his eyes fell upon the cookies, he said, “Maple syrup!” and was suddenly right in front of me, like a fish to bait. I gave him the cookies, explaining they were a welcome gift to my country, and he was super excited. In our shared excitement, I forgot to ask for his autograph, but somehow I have no regrets!

 

As he waited for Cannondale’s turn to take the stage, he posed for the photographers with his prized cookies before turning back to give me his official thumbs up approval and saying, “I’ve had these before and they’re really good!”

 

After meeting Ramunus Navardauskas, Gediminas Bagdonas, and Aidis Kroupis this season, I’ve become quite partial to the Lithuanian riders so I was really happy to get an autograph from Tomas Vaitkus, the reigning Lithuanian road champion. I’m not sure the spectators around me knew who he was, but they were all so excited and impressed that so many riders had come over to greet me and sign my flag, that they were happy to keep cheering.

 

Garmin rode up and parked themselves nearby, talking and checking their bikes. I had my “Canada loves Garmin” sign at the ready and the crowd around yelled so loudly for Ryder that he had no choice but to come over and sign. He is a pretty low key guy and I get the impression he doesn’t love massive amounts of attention, but he was a great sport and even said he remembered me from the Tour.

 

Thomas Dekker is a man of many interests off the bike, including promoting his new line of underwear, though we stuck to bike racing today when he signed my flag.

 

When I met Brent Bookwalter at the penultimate stage of the Tour, I immediately had to add him to my list of the nicest guys in the peloton. He was so easy to talk to (I am largely cured of my cyclist induced tongue tied-ness, but it still strikes me from time to time) and genuinely interested in my travels which meant a lot to me. It’s easy for the conversation to be all about the rider so it was really special to see that an athlete I respect wanted to hear about my life. When he was riding by this morning, I called his name and he came over with a big smile, saying “You were at the Tour! I remember you!” before I could even open my mouth.

 

Around this time, Saxo joined the bunch in waiting to go in stage. There were a few guys on the team I was crossing my fingers to get autographs from. I figured Alberto Contador would be too hard to get so I wasn’t even planning on trying but since the fans around me had been loving all the attention from the cyclists, they screamed so passionately for him that he came over without me even opening my mouth! I’ve gotten crowds riled up before but this was the first time they’d persuaded a rider to come over without me having to do any work at all.

 

Timmy Duggan was delighted to sign for me and since I knew he and Ted King were great friends, I told him to make sure Ted shared his maple syrup cookies with him! He laughed and thanked me for the tip.

 

As I added all of these autographs to my Quebec flag, it was finally Cannondale’s turn to be presented to the fans. Unfortunately, there was a pole in the way so we couldn’t quite see everyone’s face but there’s a really easy way to tell who the rider is on the far right without resorting to process of elimination. What’s that he’s holding in his hands? Maple syrup cookies! Yup, Ted King had been hanging out and riding around all this time, happily clutching his box of cookies.

 

Karsten Kroon.

 

Cyril Gautier.

 

Matti Breschel.

 

Garmin fielded just 6 riders instead of a full 8-man roster. Left to right: Hesjedal, Dekker, Stetina, Danielson, Talansky, and Wegmann.

 

I met Kevin Reza back at the Tour and even coincidentally stayed at the same hotel as Europcar one night, and every time I saw him, he was smiling. Today was no exception!

 

One autograph I wasn’t able to get at the Tour was from Polish road champion Michal Kwiatkowski, who wore the best young rider jersey for many stages. I saw him today and called out to him as he rode by, but he had already passed me by the time he heard me. He pulled a U turn, inspiring huge cheers from the spectators around me, and signed my flag.

 

I’ve been fortunate enough to me Niki Terpstra a few times in the last couple of months but I still couldn’t resist and asked for his signature yet again. He definitely recognizes me by now and shakes his head with a smile whenever he sees me.

 

Sky was the last team to be introduced and the peloton perched on the start line. The riders watched as the RCMP gave a 21 gun salute to start the race.

 

Because it was a circuit course, the riders completed a lap about every 18 minutes, meaning we not only saw the peloton often but the time passed incredibly quickly between laps. There were 2 giant screens broadcasting the race so we were kept well up to date on the breakaways and ongoings. After the race had officially started, most of the fans around me left to watch from different spots on the course, many of them shaking my hand and thanking me for bringing the riders so close and for a memorable morning. Their enjoyment made my day (but I wasn’t about to trade my autographed flag for anything!).

 

For the first several laps, Machado, Agnoli, and Bilbao escaped the peloton.

 

The peloton.

 

Cannondale and Movistar took turns at the front of the peloton throughout much of the race.

 

With just a couple of laps to go, the composition of the breakaway changed and BMC made a big move to get 3 of their riders, including Tejay van Garderen, in the break.

 

The weather was had begun to threaten another rain storm like yesterday and around this time, riders started to abandon the race. Hugo Houle suffered a broken chain and shortly after abandoned. The poor guy looked awfully frustrated as he talked with one of the AG2R staff members.

 

Another rider to abandon was David Veilleux who received a heart warming hero’s welcome as he rode past the crowd.

 

Niki Terpstra launched a daring solo attack.

 

The scene as the peloton entered the final kilometer.

 

Terpstra was ultimately caught and others tried to attack but without success. A bunch sprint was headed towards to the line with any number of legitimate contenders at the front. The rider with the strongest final kick today proved to be Robert Gesink.

 

As the peloton finished, everyone looked shattered. It was a long and dusty course with nearly 10,000 vertical feet of climbing. As the riders removed their glasses and nose strips, it was remarkable to see the amount of dirt caked on their faces, as if they’d just finished one of the spring classics instead of an urban circuit. Below: Ryan Roth and Marcus Burghardt.

 

 

The press swarmed Ryder Hesjedal.

 

The podium. Robert Gesink first, Arthur Vichot second, and Greg Van Avermaet third.

 

Tiago Machado won King of the Mountains.

 

The highest placing Canadian rider was Ryder Hesjedal.

 

Today’s 32 autographs came from: #1 Chris Froome, #3 Joe Dombrowski, #7 Geraint Thomas, #8 Jonathan Tiernan-Locke, #11 Peter Sagan, #21 Ryder Hesjedal, #23 Thomas Dekker, #31 Alberto Contador, #32 Matti Breschel, #33 Timmy Duggan, #35 Karsten Kroon, #41 Rui Costa, #48 Francisco Jose Ventoso, #63 Michal Kwiatkowski, #65 Niki Terpstra, #71 Borut Bozic, #82 Jan Bakelants, #91 Lars Petter Nordhaug, #105 Hugo Houle, #112 Brent Bookwalter, #113 Marcus Burghardt, #122 Fumiyuki Beppu, #124 Tomas Vaitkus, #126 Cameron Meyer, #141 Romain Sicard, #166 Dominique Rollin, #183 Sergey Lagutin, #188 Danny Van Poppel, #191 David Veilleux, #194 Cyril Gautier, #196 Kevin Reza, and #203 Zach Bell.

 

Thanks, Hermano, for being on photo duty today while I gathered autographs!

 

UPDATE! Thanks to my friend, Matt, I’ve added several of his photos of riders signing my Vuelta shirt from the stage 13 sign on in Valls last week. Click here to view!