In wandering around Montpellier last night, Fien and I discovered a couple of hotels where riders were staying. Not wanting to miss an opportunity to support the peloton, we were up early this morning and chalked a couple of quick messages to Jens Voigt and Svein Tuft (and Robbie McEwan) on the sidewalk in front of their hotel.
We were early even by our standards to wait for the cyclists to sign in. Luckily, our consistent presence had already gotten us noticed by the 2 Dutch guys who do the bulk of the morning set up at every stage. I don't know their names, but they were a riot, playing songs by Canadian and Belgian bands and dedicating them to us over the loudspeaker, and they certainly looked after us by offering us tea and coffee in the morning and bringing us much appreciated bottles of water after the sign in had finished. I can only imagine how long their days are, with physical work beginning around 5am and ending in the afternoon before driving a couple of hundred kilometers to the next stage start, yet these 2 were always smiling and laughing. I gave them this blog address, so, gentlemen if you're reading this, I'd like to say a huge “THANK YOU!” wherever you are!
A few stray cyclists rolled in and the first team to show up was Argos.
That was pretty much the end of my picture taking for the days since it's virtually impossible for me to call out to cyclists, get autographs, and take photos. Now that I already have a lot of the signatures I was hoping for, it feels great to be able to just cheer for riders without asking anything from them. When David Veilleux signed in, I cheered him on and he looked up with a big grin and waved at me. He made a big loop and cycled by me, slowing down to acknowledge my support before heading back to his team bus.
I nabbed 10 autographs today which is especially satisfying considering the barricades were set up particularly far from the podium. Among the first autographs of the day were Blel Kadri (France, AG2R) and Jose Serpa (Colombia, Lampre).
The riders at RadioShack Leopard Trek must have been in a relaxed mood because I got signatures from Tony Gallopin (France), Haimar Zubeldia (Spain), and Jan Bakelants (Belgium). Fien told Jan that she and I were good luck for him as we had seen him in Bastia before the stage start and he ended up in yellow that evening. Jan laughed and said maybe he'd try something today.
Throughout the morning we got plenty of responses from the riders, though we did fail to get both Gert Steegmans and Niki Terpstra's attention. A lot of the Spaniards waved back at me when I wished them luck in Spanish.
As Marcus Burghardt signed in, the media closed in on him and interviewed him. We weren't sure if he'd seen or heard us through the melee, but he must have because he casually rode over to us and greeted Fien with the 3 kisses customary in Belgium. He paused for a minute to talk with her and invite her to the VIP area for the following day's stage before he signed autographs and returned to his bus.
We had met an American who had specific instructions from her dad in Pennsylvania which cyclists to look for so we did our best to help her out. She was after the Americans in the peloton and we were all able to get Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) to sign for us. This was my third day trying to get his signature so I was really excited.
I also had pulled in 2 Canadians who were wearing Garmin kit and a Ryder shirt and promised to do my best to get Ryder and the Garmin boys over. Andy Talansky was the first of Garmin to sign in and the 5 of us went nuts cheering for him. He was cracking up as he descended the stairs, mounted his bike and rode over to us. He seemed to really like the support and he definitely appreciated my homemade “Allez Garmin” sign! Vande Velde, Martin, Danielson, and Navardauskas signed in when the area was packed with cyclists so I don't think they heard us. I'm pretty sure Jack Bauer did hear us but I think maybe we were too enthusiastic since he seemed to avoid looking in our direction! At least I finally got a wave, but not an autograph, out of Rohan Dennis. David Millar acknowledged us right away which calmed our cheering and he came over to sign our collective flags, signs, shirts, and jerseys. We went wild when Ryder showed up, we even had the American yelling for him and I don't think she'd known who he was before this morning. He was clearly heading in our direction but we were too excited to stop cheering, so he seemed to chuckle to himself and he gestured to us to settle down (but I don't think we did!). He was kind enough to sign several autographs as he talked with us. Like I mentioned earlier, it was nice to just interact with the cyclists so I shook Ryder's hand and wished him the best for today and the Tour.
One of the absolute toughest guys in the peloton, Tony Martin (Germany, Omega Pharma-Quick Step), is probably one of the nicest, too. He came over to us and seemed to be genuinely flattered with Fien called him her hero.
Our last signature of the day was former British champion Ian Stannard of Sky.
A few riders from Belkin and Argos who had already signed in returned to pick up some snacks and water. Just as Fien said, “Well, I think that's everybody,” I knew there was one rider missing and he arrived on cue. Jens Voigt was clearly cutting it close, tapping his wrist and shaking his head apologetically to indicate his tardiness to the sign in officials as he bolted up the steps to reach the podium. He signed in with one hand and waved to me with the other when I called out, “We love you, Jens!” He still stopped to sign a quick autograph before going to fill his pockets with snacks. As close as it was to the stage starting, he took his sweet time selecting exactly which Power Bar flavors he wanted and finding the best looking peaches. He finally seemed satisfied that he had enough food to see him through the start of the race so I started to breath a sigh of relief that he'd catch the start in time, but then he stopped to sign a couple of autographs! As he started to pull away, I said to him, “Hurry, hurry, you have to go!” and gestured frantically towards the start and gave me a laugh and a nod as he finally went to the start.
What would these guys do without me?