The Presentation of the Teams

With Saturday’s opening 121-mile stage beginning and ending in Brussels and Sunday’s eighteen-mile time trial taking place entirely within the city, the much-revered Yellow course markers are all over the place, especially in the city center where the peloton will follow a lengthy neutralized zone at a parade pace before the action begins.  Their route will take them down the narrow cobbled street that goes by the iconic peeing-boy statue, that still remains free of a Yellow garment.

The peloton will also pass through the Grand Place, three blocks from the statue, where the presentation of the teams was held.  It was already packed ninety minutes before the first team rolled up on the station at 5:30.  A large screen to the side of the plaza showed the eight-rider teams led by a boy in a Yellow Jersey riding through the throngs to reach the stage.  Their faces were all wreathed in broad smiles as if they were atop the podium at the end of a stage responding to the cheers along the way.

Each rider was introduced and then one or two per team was subjected to a brief interview by one of the two emcees.  It wasn’t until the sixth of the twenty-two teams, Dimension Data, that an interview was conducted in English.  Under ordinary circumstances that interviewee would have been Mark Cavendish, who hasn’t missed a Tour since 2007 and is second to Eddy Merckx in Tour stage wins with thirty, but Cavendish has been struggling and wasn’t selected by his team.  As Dimension Data approached the stage one of the announcers pointed out it was “sans Cavendish.”  The non-French or non-Dutch speaker on the South African-sponsored team that spoke a few words was the Norwegian Edvald Boassen Hagen, the team leader who has won three Tour stages in his career.  The announcer made some joke about him being an Eddy, that didn’t really work.

During lulls in the two-hour program between teams reaching the stage reporters roamed the crowd conducting interviews of their own.

Some used the stage as a backdrop while a team was being introduced.

A fan wearing a vintage Belgium jersey worn for the World Champships made an irresistible subject. 

Only one of the four Americans in The Race was given the mike on stage, Tejay Van Garderen on the Education First team.  Though he has twice finished fifth in The Tour and finished second in the recent Dauphiné, he will be riding in support of the Colombian Rigoberto Uran, who finished second in The Tour two years ago.  Despite the strength of the Colombian riders, with two other potential contenders, Nairo Quintana of Movistar and Egan Bernal of Ineos, there are only four Colombians in The Race.  They may have the most fanatic fans.  There were more Colombian flags in the crowd than all the others combined.  

France and Belgium have the most riders in the field with 34 and 21.  There is no contender among the Belgians, but the French may have thier best shot to win in years with Romain Bardet and Thibot Pinot, as Christopher Froome, Tom Doumilin and Primoz Roglic, who finished second through fourth last year, are absent due to injury or fatigue.  And last year’s winner, Geraint Thomas, is questionable, as he’s coming off an injury at the recent Tour de Suiss.  Van Garderen might be a surprise contender too.  He switched teams this year and his new coach, Dr Andrew Lim, who has worked with the Garmin and Radio Schack teams and a wide array of top cyclists and even George Bush,  is known for getting the best out of riders.  He may have resurrected Van Garderen with his second at the Dauphiné.  The announcer asked Van Garderen what he thought of Belgium.  He called it “the Mecca of cycling.”

Before the program began the large screen in the plaza showed highlights from Merckx’s career.  We were kept waiting until after the final team made its appearance, the defending champions Ineos, formerly Sky, for “His Royal Highness,” as he was introduced, to take the stage.  Many in the crowd were wearing caps with Eddy on the upturned bill.  He answered a few questions.  The only answer I could decipher was The Rolling Stones and I Can’t Get No Satisfaction. 

During the proceedings my loaded bike attracted a couple of admirers.  One was a representative of Giant bicycles who well knew my Trek 520.  He was in attendance as Giant is providing the bikes for the CCC Polish-sponsored team, whose director is the American Jim Ochowicz, formerly of BMC and the Postal Service team. The Giant rep was based out of California.  This was his first Tour and he was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm all round.

A Belgian touring cyclist wanted to know about my front rack.  It was just what he was looking for.  It is a Bruce Gordon and has served me for over twenty-five years. Gordon was a reknowned frame builder who took up the craft after dropping out of art school in Chicago and moving west. When we goggled him, his blog came up.  His last blog post in May said how much he missed France.  It didn’t mention he passed on a month later.  

My first order of business on reaching Brussels was to head to its downtown Decathlon store and buy a tire, replacing my rear tire as I do before each Tour.  It was worn thin but had gone nearly 3,000 miles without a flat.  I also replaced m

my chain, conducting the operation in the shade of a plaza across from the mobbed Decathlon.  

I kept waiting to hear my name shouted out with the Australian accent of fellow long-time Tour follower Skippy, but we managed to avoid each other in this large metropolis.  Ordinarily we find one another in short order at the Grand Départ.  I did cross paths with Tour director Christian Prudhomme and two of the last three French Tour winners Bernard Hinault and Bernard Thévenet. The third, Laurent Fignon, is at rest in Père Lachaise. They stopped in at the Tour information center facing the Fan Zone.  I was talking to a Belgian who asked me to take a picture of him in front of a photo of Eddy Merckx with his director, who was this guy’s uncle.  

Van Garderen certainly had it right—Belgium is Cycling’s Mecca.