Today Richard Virenque, the eternal King of the Mountains who won the climber's jersey 7 times in 11 years, was on hand at the sign in.
Everyone has the same goal at a sign on: to get a few autographs from your favorite riders. My dad and I arrived in time to get a good spot next to some extremely eager and excited fans. We quickly formed an alliance and discussed the riders whose signatures we most wanted.
Garmin's leader Andrew Talansky heard me (and my teammates) cheering for him and happily came over for an autograph and a quick chat.
I do like a lot of the Colombians in the peloton and so I'm excited that Janier Acevado is with Garmin.
Daniel Navarro.
Adrien Petit.
Sebastian Langeveld in the Dutch champion's jersey.
Michael Schär.
Lots of riders starting their workday with the podium.
Ramunas Navardauskas.
Lars Boom.
I got autographs from both of the Canadians in the peloton: Christian Meier and Svein Tuft.
Peter Velits.
Fabian Cancellara has eluded me at every single race I've ever been to. He is one of the few riders whose autograph I've never gotten and I often don't bother to try anymore, to be perfectly honest. He doesn't sign many autographs so when my neighbors said he was a primary goal of theirs, I was willing to give it a go. We shouted his name like his life depended on it and he rode straight to us! That is, right before making a left turn and making himself comfortable at the snack table for 10 minutes. I still can't believe it, but since Fien had one eye on him the entire time, she sounded the alarm when Cancellara was on his way back and he actually signed autographs for all of us!
The always popular, Jens Voigt.
Russian champion Alexander Porsev.
Samuel Dumoulin.
Jack Bauer.
French champion Arnaud Démare.
After an awkward mishap on the podium yesterday, Vincenzo Nibali finally got his customary kiss from the podium girl this morning.
Albert Timmer.
Danny Pate.
Marcel Sieberg.
When I asked Alberto Contador how his legs were feeling today, he launched into an excited response about how his legs feel great, they are ready, he can ride forever feeling this. “All the way to Paris?” “Sí!” He is feeling incredibly confident and comfortable with his riding right now. I'm not sure Chris Froome would be able to truthfully give a similar answer right now.
Romain Bardet.
Cheng Ji.
Jurgen Roelandts.
The race started and the peloton rolled out to cover a relatively easy 155 kilometers down to London. The course would be flat and the riders all mentioned that they were pleased to have a relaxed day after yesterday's ride. When I arrived in London at the finish, it was clear the peloton was treating today like a recovery ride and traveling much slower than usual.
Believe it or not, I actually managed to find my friend in this crowd with no trouble whatsoever!
We were a bit beyond the finish line and had a terrific view of everyone's camera as Marcel Kittel and 195 other riders sprinted their way along The Mall.
Froome and Nibali finished side by side in 28th and 29th places, respectively.
Tuft and Bodnar.
It's not a great photo but I got a kick out of seeing former Dutch champion Lars Boom in conversation with the current Dutch champion, Sebastian Langeveld.
Anyone wearing a special jersey and a handful of other riders doubled back to head to anti-doping control or to the podium.
Stage winner Kittel was the only one engulfed by an entourage.
Fans and press awaited the awards ceremony.
For the second time already–and likely not the last time–Kittel climbed the podium a stage winner of the 2014 Tour.
Nibali maintained his 2 second advantage over 20 other riders to keep his yellow jersey.
Sagan kept both the sprinter's and young rider's jerseys.
Tomorrow will be another day in polka dots for Cyril Lemoine.
Jan Barta spent the day involved in a break and was gobbled up just a few kilometers shy of the finish. He received the most combative prize for his efforts.
Sam and I hustled through the typically massive crowd to stroll through the buses.
The buses, however, were closed off to fans so we stuck around for a few minutes to watch the team cars pass. Pretty quickly, I saw Daniel Oss in his team track suit and pulling his wheelie luggage onto the yellow bus below. We quickly realized that the riders were all boarding not their team buses but regular buses. Every riders from NetApp, Cannondale, BMC, and a couple of other teams had to pass us so we stood there happily, calling out to our favorite riders as they prepared for the lengthy transfer to France ahead of stage 4.
I can't believe I added 38 more autographs today! (The tally was actually 39 but there's a new unidentified signature today–so hard to keep track of the numbers amidst the commotion!) The riders who signed were: 6 Danny Pate, 14 Jesus Herrada, Russian champion 25 Alexander Porsev, 31 Alberto Contador, 38 Mick Rogers, 56 Marco Marcato, 62 Lars Boom, 68 Sep Vanmarcke, 74 Michal Kwiatkowski, 82 Romain Bardet, 84 Samuel Dumoulin, 89 Christophe Riblon, 91 Andrew Talansky, 92 Janier Acevado, 93 Jack Bauer, 97 Ramunas Navardauskas, 107 Cheng Ji, 108 Albert Timmer, Portuguese champion 116 Nelson Oliveira, French national champion 121 Arnaud Démare, 132 Lars Ytting Bak, 136 Adam Hansen, 138 Jurgen Roelandts, 139 Marcel Sieberg, 144 Amaël Moinard, 146 Michael Schär, 149 Peter Velits, 152 Yukiya Arashiro, 157 Perrig Quemeneur, 161 Andy Schleck, 163 Fabian Cancellara, 164 Markel Irizar, 168 Jens Voigt, 169 Haimar Zubeldia, 171 Daniel Navarro, 177 Adrien Petit, 187 Christian Meier, and Canadian champion 188 Svein Tuft.
