When my train pulled in to York late yesterday, I wasn't interested in taking any photos of York's Tour decorations but when I walked by this Indian restaurant and their homage to the absent Sir Bradley Wiggins, I caved.
And as a mediocre knitter, I appreciated the work that went into these bike cozies.
I met Fien and her mom in the security queue to enter the grounds for today's sign on. When I had studied the stage map, it looked like the stage was leaving from a big park. It wasn't in fact a park but a race track and it wasn't the security queue, it was the ticket holders line! Our hearts sank when personnel instructed everyone to have their tickets ready. Tickets?! Nowhere in my research and planning did I come across anything that hinted at the necessity of tickets. I asked an official looking man in a turquoise blazer if it was possible to enter the grounds sans tickets and he said it was not. Before I could even process this, a man in the queue said, “How many do you need?” “Three.” “Well here's one,” he said handing me a spare ticket. “And here's 2 more,” the man behind him piped up. I hugged them both and scurried back to Fien and her mom to share the good news!
In no time, the stands went from this…
…to this!
The morning's entertainment had already become routine and familiar by stage 2, but one treat was seeing Ken Russell, winner of the 1952 Tour of Britain. He had a great sense of humor and sent his wishes to Mark Cavendish, architect of yesterday's crash in the closing meters. It was later announced that Cav's separated shoulder had forced him to abandon the race overnight.
Fien and I weren't sure which direction the riders would come from and we picked a spot on the wrong side. Not a problem, I was happy to grab some shots of the riders signing in and it was soon apparent that, given the volume of team cars driving and parking in front of the barriers, we wouldn't have faired much better even if we'd been in a different spot.
Former Estonian champion, Rein Taaramäe.
Julien Simon was also tangled up in yesterday's crash with Cav and Gerrans.
Portuguese champion Nelson Oliviera rested his bike while Gatis Smukulis descended the podium.
These two young Colombians chatted all the way to the podium, Darwin Atapuma and Janier Acevado.
There was not even half the amount of press today as yesterday, but one face I was excited to see belonged to David Millar. When the Garmin boys began to trickle in, Talansky, Howes, and Vansummeren all had warm hugs for their teammate.
Johan Vansummeren.
Yorkshire lad Simon Yates said he felt right at home on these roads.
A morose wave from Luca Paolini who was probably missing his bearded friend, Simon Geschke.
French champion Arnaud Démare.
Early estimates predicted a total of about three million fans at the first 3 Tour stages, but stage 1 alone apparently had two million! The riders have taken note of the tremendous reception and I've never before seen so many riders taking photos of the crowd at a sign on.
There was a bright side to our spot, after all, as the entire peloton had to pass by us to get to the start line, so we grabbed the opportunity to collect 13 more signatures from familiar faces.
While the peloton headed out west to tackle 9 categorized climbs, I took a massive shortcut and jumped on a southbound train for Sheffield. I'm not sure why, but getting to the train station and then getting on a train was a totally relaxed affair compared to yesterday, which was a relief. Even better, when I arrived in Sheffield and asked a race volunteer for directions to the finish line, I was given a cookie!
With just 3 hours until the peloton was due to arrive, I knew my options would be limited so I was happy to find a place along the barriers about 150 meters beyond the gantry. Thanks to my camera's zoom, I was looking forward to getting a clear shot of the riders coming in to the finish.
But I forgot about the gaggle of photographers! Oops.
Fortunately there was a TV across the street in the red tent so I watched the final hour of the race live. Up until then, I chatted with the people around me, including a Scottish mechanic who had worked at something like 7 Olympics games for various countries and is heading for a training camp with the Scottish track cycling team ahead of the Commonwealth Games.
This was never going to be a day for the sprinters but Marcel Kittel in the yellow jersey was bleeding time at every update and would eventually finish the stage in excess of 10 minutes behind the winner.
A small break had been allowed to go earlier in the stage and the peloton predictably reeled them in on their rapid approach to Sheffield. With 30 kilometers to go, a few different teams begin to push to the front in an attempt to control the race. Tom-Jelte Slagter came to the front for Garmin and really pushed the pace in an effort to land 4th place teammate Ramunas Navardauskas in the yellow jersey, but that move was eventually nixed by the peloton. A few riders tried to attack but didn't get very far. However, 2013 Giro d'Italia winner and newly crowned Italian champion, Vincenzo Nibali, shot off the front and quickly gained 12 seconds. In the final kilometer, the peloton fought to pull Nibali back but the finish line arrived in time for the Italian to take the stage win.
Nibali, surrounded by shepherds in white, received congratulations from Alejandro Valverde.
Michal Kwiatkowski.
Andrew Talansky.
Chris Froome and Mikel Nieve.
Soigneurs lined the road, ready to deliver water and Coke to their riders. Riders left to right: Nick Roche, Darwin Atapuma, Jakob Fuglsang, and Tom Dumoulin.
Slagter and Acevado.
A victim of the Cavendish-caused crash in the final meters of stage 1, Simon Gerrans soldiered on through today's stage.
Geraint Thomas.
Rui Costa.
Marcus Burghardt spent much of the day in the unsuccessful break.
Stage winners in the 2013 Tour, teammates Matteo Trentin and Tony Martin.
John Degenkolb, the only man smiling after the finish line.
Riding were still trickling in but the podium ceremony got underway. Since I was at a funny angle, I only stayed to watch Nibali collect his prize for the stage win and then to receive his yellow jersey.
Ted King.
Jens Voigt looked like he enjoyed his day in the climber's jersey. The polka dots on his bike computer were a nice touch.
Two hundred kilometers later, Luca Paolina still looked morose.
Canadians Svein Tuft and Christian Meier ahead of Latvia's Gatis Smukulis.
Maciej Bodnar.
The riders for remaining jerseys and prizes hadn't yet arrived, so I wandered through the craziness that is the buses. It still astounds me that the riders aren't officially ushered to their buses.
Kittel came in with several of his teammates.
Danny Van Poppel stopped to ponder the human traffic jam before him.
Jean-Marc Marino behind a slew of riders.
I got stuck behind Elia Viviani.
A couple of hours before the stage finished, I'd spotted a couple decked out in yellow, green, and red. This could be only for one rider so I asked them, “Navardauskas?” and got enthusiastic cheers from them. I found them once more, this time having their picture taken with the Honey Badger himself.
A Cannondale staff member carried Peter Sagan's goodies back to the team bus while the Slovakian fulfilled his obligations to the press.
In front of the Astana bus, a flag-wielding group chanted, “A-stan-a! Kaz-akh-stan!”
There wasn't much commotion at the neighboring Cofidis bus, but I think their message was on target and well received.
This morning’s 16 autographs came from: 27 Gatis Smukulis, 49 Lieuwe Westra, 52 Maciej Bodnar, 79 Matteo Trentin, 98 Tom-Jelte Slagter, 103 Koen De Kort, 104 John Degenkolb, 114 Chris Horner, 118 Jose Serpa, 131 Jurgen Van Den Broeck, 148 Greg Van Avermaet, 158 Kevin Réza, 159 Thomas Voeckler, 184 Luke Durbridge, 186 Jens Keukeleire, and a rider whose number I sadly missed!
UPDATE: I've added a few sign on photos to the Stage 1 post and discovered that the mystery signature belonged to Jakob Fuglsang.