Just because there were no races today doesn't mean there wasn't cycling to watch. With the road races starting tomorrow, today the national teams got to scout out the course on traffic-free roads.
The Algerian team stopped to discuss the morning's ride.
The 2 minibuses carrying the Canadian team drove right by me on their way to the parking lot. When they stopped for the police to open the fences, I enthusiastically waved my Canadian flag as all the athletes started to wave back and pound on the windows. After that, they seemed to be looking for me out on the course and I got half a dozen waves and lots of smiles each time they completed another lap. Yup, they were excited to have a little support.
A lonely Portugese rider waited for his teammates.
Fabian Cancellara, Mark Cavendish, and Gregory Rast.
The Belgian team rode by a couple of times and on their second lap, we cheered for Philippe Gilbert. I got a photo of him looking at us just before he smiled and waved. Left to right: Bjorn Leukemans, Philippe Gilbert, Serge Pauwels, Johan Vansummeren, and Greg Van Avermaet.
A couple of Belarussian riders were trying to find a shortcut to get on the course so one of them moved a fence and started to ride off, assuming his teammate was right behind him.
An Italian cop was none too pleased that his fence had been disturbed, so the logical thing for him to do was to chew out the second Belarussian rider in Italian and demand to see his accreditation. The poor kid fumbled through his backpack, muttering, “I don't…speak…Italian.”
Part of the reason I was so keen to watch the riders test out the course today was to get used to seeing riders in their national kits. I can identify half the peloton from a fair distance but I'm used to seeing them wearing their trade team kits, so it's an adjustment to get used to seeing Alejandro Valverde riding in Spain's red and black as opposed to his usual Movistar navy blue. As usual, there are far too many teams with far too much white in their kits, making a lot of countries look awfully similar. And I'll never understand why Lithuania has completely forsaken the green in their flag for red and yellow kits that look more Spanish than Lithuanian, but after today I can now tell the 2 countries apart. At least the Dutch can always be counted on to sport their distinct electric orange.
We headed over to the parking lot to see what was going on. There were lots of buses and vans parked with coaches and mechanics sitting out front, taking advantage of the relative peace and quiet.
Riders from the various countries slowly trickled in. Here, a Slovakian rider swaps out his cycling shoes for flip flops. When we walked by the Slovakian bus a little later on, Peter Velits had just returned and was joking around with the coaches.
Serge Pauwels and Marcus Burghardt talking with the German coaches.
When Greg Van Avermaet pulled up to the team bus, the media flocked to him, though that was nothing in comparison to the stampede when Philippe Gilbert turned up. Being the world champion is no easy burden.
Swiss rider Gregory Rast couldn't have looked like a man on vacation as he munched on a banana and hung out with kiwi Sam Bewley.
Yesterday's bronze medal winner in the men's ITT, Fabian Cancellara, emerged from the bus to get some snacks out of the car while the rest of the team prepared to go out for another few laps.
This is the small mob that instantly materialized the moment Cancellara showed his face.
It seemed like most of the riders had finished their morning training and lots of the buses had left so Fien and I made our way out of the parking lot. I saw a Tunisian cyclist slowly ride past us. Immediately, I recognized him as the same Tunisian I'd randomly cheered for during his training ride a few days ago and the teacher in me is really good at remembering names, so I yelled, “Allez, Rafaa!” He turned around and I swear you could have lit up Las Vegas with the energy in his smile! It's safe to say I now have a favorite Tunisian rider.
As we started to walk away from the course, we spied a gaggle so Spanish riders approaching (it wasalready paying off that we have made the effort to study the national uniforms!) and saw Jonathan Castroviejo.
Close behind were Purito Rodriguez and Sammy Sanchez.
