Tour de France: stage 5

With today’s stage from Cagnes-sur-Mer to Marseilles being the longest in this year’s Tour, the riders had a relatively early start. For me this meant my shortest day of waiting yet at just 3 hours! I had company again, my dad and my new Belgian friends, so while Fien and I called out to our favorite cyclists, my dad was charged with taking all the pictures.

Among the first cyclists to sign in this morning was David Veilleux (Canada, Europcar). I was front and center, calling his name so much that the announcer commented to David, “Oh, you have a fan!” He was the first of many to sign my Canadian flag today.

Just a moment or so after, my favorite Polish rider came to sign in. (What, doesn’t everyone have a favorite Polish rider?) I was definitely the only person cheering for Maciej Bodnar so he rolled over to sign my flag and flashed a big smile.

When Sep Vanmarcke cycled towards the sign in podium, Fien and I were yelling for him so loudly that he racked his bike, turned around, and made a beeline straight for us before even signing in.

Fien’s favorite cyclist and friend, Marcus Burghardt, has quickly become one of my favorites, too. When he came over to say hi to her, she introduced me to him and he shook my hand and offered to sign my flag.

It was starting to really pick up as the riders were coming in constantly now, but we saw Marcus’ Italian teammate, Manuel Quinziato, and when we shouted to him, he gave us a huge grin and signed my flag.

Meanwhile, Orica Green Edge, who won yesterday’s team time trial and possessed the coveted yellow jersey, had shown up together. The media suddenly kicked into high gear and swarmed them. I figured I wouldn’t be able to congratulate my fellow countryman Svein Tuft, but I was happy to settle for waving the Canadian flag, which he saw and smiled at.

Even after Orica Green Edge had left the stage, the press kept their positions, effectively acting as a barrier between the cyclists and the fans. But Fien and I were not to be deterred and we got Maxime Monfort to come over and sign autographs.

Former Danish national champion, Lars Bak, stopped for a moment to sign my flag before heading towards the start.

I succeeded in getting Michael Albasini from Orica Green Edge to sign my flag. Oh, perhaps I should mention that I also brought a giant inflatable hand with a #1 finger covered in the Australian flag. I know Albasini is Swiss but he rides for a very Australian team.

I had my homemade “Allez Garmin!” sign at the ready and flashed it whenever I saw a Garmin rider. Christian Vande Velde gave a quick nod but kept riding by and Rohan Dennis seems to be the only person in a 500 meter radius who is deaf to my near incessant shouting, but I won’t give up on them yet. It was too crowded when both David Millar and Dan Martin signed in for them to hear me and Tom Danielson and Andrew Talansky were both focused on preparing for today’s ride. As Talansky remounted his bike, Tejay Van Garderen rode by and the 2 friends stopped to talk for minute. It’s incredible how they are so young still and are already so accomplished.

Ramunas Navardauskas, who passed me 3 times in Bastia but failed each time to give me his autograph despite acknowledging me with a laugh, finally succumbed today. Again, he passed me but gave me only a nod. He stopped a couple of meters away from me to adjust something, so I held out my sign again and goaded him by saying things like, “Are you really not going to give me your autograph again?” and, “Don’t you like my sign?” It worked! He laughed and made a u-turn and was my first Garmin signature of the day.

I’ve now been lucky enough to meet Ryder Hesjedal a couple of times, but I’m still not going to pass up a chance to say hi to him (and get his autograph!). He came over immediately to sign for me. In this picture, you can tell he’s thoroughly impressed by my arts and crafts skills.

A couple of riders later, Jack Bauer signed in and joined the bottlenecked peloton to wait for the start. When I yelled for Jack and he saw there were a few cyclists inconveniently between us, he hesitated for a second, but when I said, “Would you like to sign my sign?” he laughed and negotiated his way over. He was super nice and stayed to chat for a minute. In addition to being one of my favorites, he has what must be the most legible of all the autographs I’ve collected to date!

You can just catch a glimpse of the rainbow jersey over Jack’s shoulder. Philippe Gilbert, current world champion, was moving down the line signing autographs, including my flag.

Thibaut Pinot, leader of FDJ, generously signed too.

Cameron Meyer is visible behind Pinot and he came over when I yelled his name. I congratulated him on his team victory yesterday and Fien piped in, saying, “No, really, she was going crazy!” which seemed to make him pretty happy.

I still had the Uzbek flag I’d made for Sergey Lagutin and even though I’d seen him for a split second earlier on, I lost him. He resurfaced in the peloton, sitting and waiting to be able to move closer to the start, so I bellowed his name and waved my Uzbek flag. The poor guy was doubly surprised: first that someone was yelling his name and secondly that I had an Uzbek flag. There were probably 6 or 7 cyclists perched on their bikes between us, so Sergey dismounted and half carried his bike over the others to investigate. I began to launch into an Uzbek greeting which should traditionally involve a solid minute of nonstop questions about the other person’s health and the well being of every aspect of that person’s life but I only got as far as asking, “Yakshi misiz?” (how are you?) when he interrupted, “Yeah, yakshi misiz.” Yup, the Uzbek rider doesn’t speak Uzbek! But he was very curious to learn how I knew Uzbek and where I was from.

Fifteen signatures! Not a bad haul for just 3 hours of waiting!