While Belfast painted the town pink to celebrate the Giro, Dublin opted to play it cool with just a little bunting and a few Giro related posters around town. Belfast 1, Dublin 0.
Finish line preparations.
Working on the gantry and cameras.
The finish line itself is always a bit of a production because it's obviously essential that it is as exact as possible. Here, a crew lays down an adhesive finish line, casually affixing it with a little but of duct tape.
Hours passed. It was sunny. It rained. It was sunny. It down poured. It was sunny. It bucketed. It was…cloudy. In the end, the crew had to use a broom and propane tank to dry the road and then use adhesive, drills, hammers, and nails before they were able to fix the finish line in place. (And I had to use my rain coat and the umbrella of a generous Irishman to fend off the determined rain!)
Fortunately a burnt finish line still works.
With no nearby screen today, I had to wait for the commentators to give periodic race updates. A five man break was caught in plenty of time for the sprinters' teams to assemble their lead out trains, but not before a few nasty sounding crashes.
The good news is that what Dublin lacked in citywide celebration (or even acknowledgement) of the Giro, it made up for in spectator numbers.
Waiting…
And waiting…
Not yet…
Soon…
Almost…
Now! Marcel Kittel beat Ben Swift and Elia Viviani for the win!
For the second stage in a row, Tyler Farrar nabbed tenth place. Below: Maxime Monfort and Leonardo Duque come in for 19th and 20th place, respectively.
Luke Durbridge rolls in ahead of teammate Ivan Santaromita and Nairo Quintana.
Ivan Basso, Cadel Evans, and Michel Koch.
Andre Cardoso.
King of the Mountains Maarten Tjallingii comes in on Svein Tuft's wheel.
I have never seen so many riders cross themselves at the finish line before. Below: Francesco Manuel Bongiorno gives a kiss to finish the sign of the cross as he rides in next to Boy van Poppel.
Nathan Haas.
Luka Mezgec and Bert de Backer high five to celebrate their teammate's stage victory.
Lonely Bernie Eisel.
After a gap of nearly 6 minutes since the last rider finished, Marc Goos and Jetse Bol crossed the line, only to cross it again a moment later when they found their exit blocked by press and fans waiting for the podium ceremony to start.
Accompanied by a motorcycle, the final 4 riders had a little more success getting through.
With crowds like this, I had no chance of getting to the podium until the police opened up the road. Below: cameras and phones snap photos of birthday boy Kittel receiving his champagne as the stage winner.
Michael Matthews held on to the maglia rosa today by 8 seconds. He's been on the podium with champagne after every stage of the Giro so far.
Kittel returned to receive his red sprinter's jersey and throw his flowers to the crowd.
Maarten Tjallingii kept his King of the Mountains jersey and also launched his flowers.
Back again to collect the white jersey, Matthews followed suite and tossed his bouquet.
Team Colombia received just one bouquet to share for their award of best team for the stage but there were enough creepy stuffed animals for everyone.
Not to be left out by a lack of flora, one rider threw his hat and in an instant, they'd all removed their hats and ran around the stage to fling them in different directions! Jarilson Pantano (far left) nearly sacrificed his sunglasses, but suddenly remembered to grab them at the last second. It was fantastic to see them all so excited! Normally I'd say chapeau, but I'm not sure if that works here.
Receiving the super team award for best cumulative team time, 4 riders from the aptly named team Giant accepted the prize.
Friday marked the third anniversary of the death of Belgian cyclist Wouter Weylandt after suffering a fatal crash during a descent on stage 3 of the Giro. The 26 year old's race number was 108 when he died.
On a much, much brighter note, I realized that this is the second consecutive year I've stood in the rain for hours under the Giro's finish line on Mother's Day, so happy Mother's Day! Happily, I'm much less soggy this year.
