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.

So what do I do when I get to the sign on well before the cyclists (and the rest of the fans)? Today I used the time to finish a new sign for Garmin I started late last night while watching Tom Danielson win the Tour of Utah.

Eventually, more fans showed up and the cyclists did, too, though they certainly took their sweet time this morning. They have a one hour window for signing in and not a single rider showed up for the first 20 minutes. After 30 minutes, just a couple of Euskaltel guys and all of Topsport Vlaanderen had signed in.

Euskaltel kept rolling in and I was pretty excited to see Ioannis Tamouridis, the current Greek champion. I saw him race in Scheldeprijs and the Giro earlier this year and today he was the first person to sign my new Canadian flag.

Waiting excitedly for the peloton.

Hugo Houle was the first Canadian to sign in and he proudly signed my flag and even posed for a picture.

Several BMC boys came to sign in together. I picked out Taylor Phinney right off the bat. He’s a rider I love to watch race and have never had the chance to meet him. He parked his bike and I yelled his name as he started to walk towards the stage and he made a beeline for me and gave me a high 5!

After he had signed in, he came over to sign my flag. I often ask riders how their legs are feeling but with Taylor, I asked how his hair was doing since it was so remarkable at the team presentation last night.

As always, Marcus Burghardt came over to say hi and talk with Fien.

Pretty soon the cyclists were pouring in! It was hard to focus since my brain kept flashing with the names of different riders, but it was mental chaos of the most wonderful sort. Guillaume Boivin was super nice and looked really happy to sign my flag. (Note fellow Canadian Dominique Rollin just behind Boivin.)

Just as Guillaume was leaving, Francois Parisien arrived and the two greeted each other excitedly. It’s nice to see the Canadians all get along (especially since there aren’t too many)! Francois was excited to sign for me and we had a nice, quick conversation. I feel like I’m constantly saying that so-and-so is the nicest guy in the peloton and I’d like to add Francois to that list!

Garmin rolled up together as the zero hour approached and I got autographs from Robbie Hunter and Johan Vansummeren. I waved my new banner for the team and Navardouskus, who I’m fairly sure recognized me from the Tour de France, seemed impressed by my arts and crafts skills.

Here I am, not getting Alessandro Petacchi’s signature.

In all, I collected an astounding 19 signatures! I’m pretty sure that’s a new personal best. My flag was signed by #16 Taylor Phinney, #18 Danilo Wyss, #28 Stijn Vandenbergh, #58 Lieuwe Westra, #71 Stijn Devolder, #79 Jan Bakelants, #96 Gatis Smukulis, #103 Robbie Hunter, #108 Johan Vansummeren, #116 Francois Parisien, #131 Svein Tuft, #138 Jens Keukeleire, #139 Pieter Weening, #142 Guillaume Boivin, #153 Alex Dowsett, #162 Davide Appollonio, #166 Hugo Houle, #167 Julian Kern, and #178 Ioannis Tamouridis. It was great getting to see some of the riders I had met during the Tour de France and realizing that Svein, Marcus, and Jan Bakelandts clearly remembered me.

But it wasn’t just autograph hunting–I came to see a race! So Fien and I raced to the barriers to watch the official start and even had time to hang up my Canadian flag. Left to right: Garmin, RadioShack, Luke Durbridge, Ioannis Tamouridis, AG2R, Johnny Hoogerland, Svein Tuft, and Philippe Gilbert.

Bradley Wiggins and Sylvain Chavanel having a chat at the back.

The course took the cyclists on a loop and when they returned 17 kilometers later, Laurens De Vreese of Topsport Vlaanderen had a short lead on one of his teammates and a rider from Accent Jobs Wanty, but around a 7 minute advantage over the peloton.

The peloton, in no particular hurry.

From here, we bolted to the car with Fien’s family and we drove to Ardooie to catch the cyclists make 2 laps before crossing the finish line.

At the 1km banner.

We were lucky to find some space just shy of the finish line and directly across from the victory podium.

The same 3 riders maintained their breakaway from the start but their lead was now down to just a couple of minutes.

The peloton, led by Francois Parisien.

Philippe Gilbert and Taylor Phinney.

You know you’re in Belgium when a police officer in uniform at a cycling race crosses the street to hand a beer to his fire fighter buddy and then grabs a beer for himself.

On the next lap, the 3 escapees were seconds away from being swallowed up by the peloton, now led by Svein Tuft.

You can see the VIP tents across from my view so we were able to watch the peloton catch the breakaway shortly after passing us. With just 2km to go, Mark Renshaw made a move and was able to stay away all the way to the finish line.

Greipel pulled away to finish second.

When the last rider had come in, the barriers were adjusted so that fans could watch the podium from three sides, instead of the usual one.

Renshaw received flowers, a trophy, and a magnum of beer for his stage win.

He left the podium, only to return seconds later to receive the white leader’s jersey and a panda.

One final time on the podium for Renshaw today and it was to put on the red points jersey.

The black jersey for combativity went to Laurens De Vreese.

Nineteen signatures, lots of opportunities to interact with cyclists, and seeing the peloton 5 times? It’s safe to say the Eneco Tour is off to a great start in my book.

Before the week long Eneco Tour travels through Belgium and the Netherlands, it got started tonight with the team presentation in Koksijde.

To get the crowd excited, the emcees had children throw hats into the crowd. One of them nailed me right in the eyeball, but it was just a temporary injury and shouldn’t interfere with my spectating.

The first team was Accent Jobs Wanty.

Euskaltel-Euskadi.

Topsport Vlaanderen.

Katusha.

FDJ.

Orica GreenEdge. I had my inflatable guitar and Canadian flag ready and Svein Tuft (far right) spotted me right away (we were in the front row…) and he was happy to have the support!

Lampre. Today is Winner Anacona Gomez’s 25th birthday so we waved a small “Feliz cumpleaños, Winner!” sign. A couple of teammates noticed it before he did and pointed it out to him. I’m guessing it’s the first time a random fan has made Winner (second from the right, and yes, his name really is Winner) a sign in awhile because he was really excited!

AG2R.

Movistar.

Saxo Bank Tinkoff.

Cannondale. I was really excited to see my favorite Polish rider, Maciej Bodnar (first rider on the left), again and I yelled pretty loudly for him. I think he may have recognized me from always cheering for him at the Tour de France!

Garmin(!). The team I’m always happiest to see! Left to right: Robbie Hunter, Koldo Fernandez, and Tyler Farrar.

Astana.

Vacansoleil.

Sky. They didn’t give a reason why but Bradley Wiggins was absent from the team present, which was a bit disappointing but I was mostly happy to see my favorite Sky cyclist, Bernie Eisel (far right and second picture).

BMC. The Belgian time trial championship was held tonight so Philippe Gilbert couldn’t make it to the presentation unfortunately.

Taylor Phinney was having a good hair day.

Argos Shimano.

This is the photo Francois took!

RadioShack-Leopard Trek. Stijn Devolder, Maxime Monfort, and Jan Bakelants had to miss the team presentation due to the time trial championship.

Lotto-Belisol.

Belkin.

Defending Eneco champion Lars Boom.

Omega Pharma-Quick Step.

The presentation was good fun and I’m looking forward to a week of great stage racing!