Day 1 of the World Championships!
As I explained to at least 15 different people in 2 different languages (apparently the French were better informed than English and Spanish speakers) throughout the day, today was the only day all week when the cyclists would ride for their trade teams as opposed to riding for their country. Of course, that didn’t stop me from putting up my Canadian flag as usual to announce my presence and show my support.
The racing got underway with the women’s 43 kilometer team time trial. I am no where near as well versed in women’s cycling as I am in men’s, so I was eager to see the few female riders and teams I know about.
Vaiano Foundriest.
Karen Fouta.
S.C. Michela Fanini-Rox.
Each team was separated by a two and a half minute interval, yet Rusvelo had made up enough time to be just a few seconds behind S.C. Michela Fanini-Rox.
Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies had 3 Canadians on their squad, so I got to exercise my vocal cords alongside my Canadian and Australian friends.
Boels Dolmans Cycling Team.
Lotto Belisol Ladies.
Cipollini Giordana.
Argos Shimano.
Bepink.
Sengers Ladies Cycling Team.
Wiggle Honda.
Rabo Women Cycling Team promised to be a strong squad with Marianne Vos, current world champion, so it wasn’t a huge shock they had passed Hitec Products UCK.
Hitec Products UCK.
Orica-AIS.
Specialized-Lululemon was the team to beat as the defending champions.
Results
1st: Specialized-Lululemon
2nd: Rabo Women Cycling Team
3rd: Orica-AIS
There were a couple of hours between the end of the women’s race and the start of the men’s. My commonwealth companions went for a wander and I made myself abandon my post for an unnecessarily anxious 15 minutes to grab a sandwich.
The crowd was pretty thin for the women but predictably swelled for the men’s 57 kilometer TTT. The 2 newest cycling fans rejoined me and with 3 Americans I had met during the break so, with numbers on our side, we promised to be a vocal group.
The men’s teams each had a three and a half minute gap between them but Velo Club Sovac of Algeria had already been caught and passed by Hungry’s Utensilnord.
BDC-Marcpol Team.
Cycling Team Jo Piels.
Team Cult Energy.
Cycling De Rijke-Shanks.
Etixx-Ihned suffered a crash when the 5th rider plowed into the fence after missing a right hand turn. The 4 riders ahead of him carried on because it’s the time of the 4th rider to cross the finish that officially counts and the team had already dropped one cyclist, so now they were down to the bare minimum of 4 remaining riders. The one who crashed eventually got into the team car and looked to be cradling his elbow, suggesting a possible and common collarbone injury, and the dropped rider eventually rode by on his own.
The first men’s team that I was excited to see was Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategy with Canadian Ryan Anderson and Americans Chad Haga and Tom Zirbel.
Rabobank Development Team.
Kolss Cycling Team.
Adria Mobil. By this point in the race, nearly all of the teams who’d ridden by were not well known. Since I’d taken to announcing each approaching team and any riders of note to my little group, other spectators started to ask which team was next or what country the team was based in, so I just spoke a bit louder from then on and made sure everyone could hear me.
Team Gourmefteim Simplon.
MTN-Qhubeka.
Since Eneco Tour, I’m a Topsport Vlaanderen fan with riders like Laurens De Vreese and Gijs Van Hoecke, so I turned on my voice to the point where people started to ask each other, “Wait, was that one of the big teams?” and the Italian guy who was in charge of blowing a whistle as each team entered the straightaway said to me, “Belgium?” wondering why the Canadian was cheering for a small European team.
Vini Fantini.
CCC Polsat Polkowice.
Vacansoleil announced the arrival of the big teams. When I informed my area to expect them, I also included that I’m a big fan of Juan Antonio Flecha, Lieuwe Westra, and the non-Uzbek speaking Uzbek Sergey Lagutin, so we should all cheer louder than usual.
Andre Greipel was the second Lotto Belisol rider.
The crowd was starting to get into the race when FDJ rode by and since I’d announced that Canadian Dominique Rollin was on the team, we did a great job of calling his name. Unfortunately, he’d been dropped, which we didn’t know until the 5 riders had gone by and I realized we hadn’t seen Rollin. The good news is that when he did pass us, we had already practiced cheering for him so we really did a nice job.
I’m so glad to have discovered how much I like Argos Shimano over this past year.
When Euskaltel-Euskadi were in the straightaway, a couple of riders threw their water bottles into the crowd which will have made great souvenirs for someone.
There were some Italians nearby so I made sure they knew that Lampre, an Italian team, was next up.
Greek time trial and road champion, Ioannis Tamouridis, of Euskaltel and William Clarke or Argos had been dropped by their respective teams and they seemed happy enough to have each other for company.
And then it was time for Garmin! I’d already prepped everyone by telling them who was on the team, that it was important we all yell like idiots for them, and I had even shared a couple of my favorite stories about cheering for the Garmin boys, but I think everyone was still a but stunned to see my reaction. In fact, the people across the street actually turned away from the oncoming riders to watch me. The moment that Garmin entered the straightaway some 80 meters away, I just began yelling like my house was on fire and there were people trapped inside. I was excited to see Christian Vande Velde leading the team in his last professional race of his accomplished career. I’ll miss you, VDV.
Now that people knew what sort of volume I was expecting when I said it was important we all really cheer, I was thrilled as always to see Maciej Bodnar and Cannondale next.
Garmin had dropped 2 of their riders. David Millar rode by after Cannondale and it was an even longer wait for Andrew Talansky, who looked miserable, to appear.
AG2R got a big cheer from us as they rode by with Hugo Houle (left).
Belkin.
All of the spectators and crew had taken note of me by now so when one of the volunteers ran over to tell me that Saxo Tinkoff was next, I had no idea why he had done so but it was very kind of him.
Astana.
There was an Italian couple who were keen to see Fabian Cancellara, so as RadioShack Leopard Trek approached, I didn’t even bother to announce the team, I just told them Cancellara was on his way.
Katusha.
Movistar.
Sky.
There were a few Aussies around and since I’m a Svein Tuft fan, we all went pretty crazy when Orica GreenEdge rode by.
Taylor Phinney led BMC through the turn and into the last 2 kilometers.
The final team of the day was the defending TTT world champions, Omega Pharma-Quick Step. They boasted a solid squad with experienced riders like Sylvain Chavanel, Kristof Vandewalle, Peter Velits, Niki Terpstra, the Polish road champion Michal Kwiatkowski, and current individual time trial champion Tony Martin who is an absolute beast.
Kwiatkowski had been dropped and he looked like he was in a spot of bother as he pedaled home slowly.
One of the main reasons I had selected this particular spot for watching the race was not only that the left hand turn would force the riders to slow down but also because I had discovered there was free wifi available. As the last few teams passed us, we had been checking online to get updates at the various time checks along the course. With just OP-QS out on the course, we knew Taylor Phinney had disappointingly finished just off the podium yet again (he was 4th at the London Olympics in both the ITT and the road race) but the question remained: would OP-QS beat Orica GreenEdge in a reversal of this year’s TTT at the Tour de France? I’m not sure I’ve ever hit the refresh button so frantically but we finally had our answer: OP-QS had won by 0.81 seconds. I was torn between being thrilled for Niki Terpstra and his teammates and being gutted for Svein and Orica.
Results
1st: Omega Pharma-Quick Step
2nd: Orica GreenEdge
3rd: RadioShack Leopard Trek
My spectating buddies all went their separate ways and I had no idea what to do with myself. There was far too much adrenaline in my system to go for a simple evening stroll by the Ponte Vecchio, so I high tailed it to the finish line in hopes of maybe waving my flag at the Orica bus somewhere along the way.
But it went even better than I had hoped.
I arrived at the finish and saw there was a bit of a commotion at the media tent even though I didn’t see any riders giving interviews. I turned around and there was Tony Martin, just walking by himself. It took me a second but I found my voice (after not being able to turn it off up to this point) and congratulated him. I’ve been lucky enough to meet him on a few occasions and he’s always been incredibly approachable. It’s wonderful to see that he doesn’t change even when he’s just won a gold medal half an hour ago.
Before I could even get over my excitement at talking to the beast himself, Sylvain Chavanel walked by and smiled when I congratulated him.
I got to congratulate Kristof Vandewalle, Michal Kwiatkowski, and Niki Terpstra, my favorite OP-QS rider, who definitely recognized me.
Sylvain and Tony were highly in demand from the press.
After posing for pictures, Sylvain tried to sit down. I say “tried” because his legs didn’t want to cooperate and it was one of the most ungraceful things I’ve ever witnessed in my life. If you’ve ever watched me try to sit down in a controlled fashion after running a marathon, you know what I’m taking about.
Meanwhile, Kwiatkowski and Velits hung out on the step like a couple of middle school kids waiting for their mom to pick them up at 3:30.
You never know when you’ll get another chance to take your photo on the finish line at the World Championships!
I figured Orica GreenEdge must have been long gone by then so just as I was starting to think about what I should do next, Michael Hepbuen, Daryl Impey, and Brett Lancaster of Orica materialized out of nowhere. I congratulated Brett and asked him to please pass my congratulations on to Svein, adding that Svein would know me as “the Canadian.” Brett said, “Oh! You were the one with the flag!” He explained they’d all seen my Canadian flag during yesterday’s recon of the course. I could hardly believe they’d seen me since they all looked so focused on thir ride, and then Brett added, “Yeah, Svein said you come to all the races!” I’m glad I wasn’t sitting down because I know I would have fallen off my chair.
I made my way to the 2 remaining team buses in the parking lot. Daryl Impey was posing for photos and signing autographs but he looked like he was knackered, so I didn’t want to impose and just congratulated him.
There was a woman holding a bunch of flowers and when I asked whose they were, she said they belonged to Luke Durbridge, Australia’s 22 year old road and time trial champion who was surprisingly excluded from the both Australia’s world championship road and ITT squads. Laura was friendly and chatty so we had a good 10 minute talk before it was time to call it a day.
Wondering what a parking lot must look like after thirty odd team buses and countless fans have spent an excited afternoon there? In a word: spotless.
