Tour de France in the Netherlands, July 4
Every once in a while, the tour comes to the Netherlands. Stage 3 of the 2006 tour finished in Valkenburg which is in the very southern tip of the Netherlands. It's closer to Germany and Belgium than it is to Amsterdam. This is a popular place for bike racing. It hosted the 1999 World Championships and the Amstel Gold race finishes up the Cauberg climb every year. The dutch national championships were in nearby Maastricht last week (see earlier post).
Given the proximity to other countries and the fame of this climb, there were an insane amount of people there. About 500,000 in a town with a population of 4,000.
This video shows tons of people just at the base of the climb.
To pass the time, people threw cups of beer at people on the other side of the road, or better yet at the people waving from the publicity vehicles driving through the course.
It had to be one the hottest and most humid days ever. I found some shade and space on a flatter part of the course with 4km to the finish.
Don't blink. The pack just flew by.
Once the main pack went by I cut across back to the Cauberg to see the stragglers/crash victims finishing.
Is it worth sitting on a train 6 hours (roundtrip), and standing around in really hot weather for 3 hours....to see the tour go by for 2 seconds? When I put it that way, no, not really. It's only worthwile to spectate a time trial, a climbing stage, or a circuit race. But I'll do it again in two weeks watching the final stage in Paris. At least there they do 10 laps of the finishing circuit. When you're an American cycling fan in Europe in July, you'd be overrun with guilt if you didn't stop by the tour once or twice.
Given the proximity to other countries and the fame of this climb, there were an insane amount of people there. About 500,000 in a town with a population of 4,000.
This video shows tons of people just at the base of the climb.
To pass the time, people threw cups of beer at people on the other side of the road, or better yet at the people waving from the publicity vehicles driving through the course.
It had to be one the hottest and most humid days ever. I found some shade and space on a flatter part of the course with 4km to the finish.
Don't blink. The pack just flew by.
Once the main pack went by I cut across back to the Cauberg to see the stragglers/crash victims finishing.
Is it worth sitting on a train 6 hours (roundtrip), and standing around in really hot weather for 3 hours....to see the tour go by for 2 seconds? When I put it that way, no, not really. It's only worthwile to spectate a time trial, a climbing stage, or a circuit race. But I'll do it again in two weeks watching the final stage in Paris. At least there they do 10 laps of the finishing circuit. When you're an American cycling fan in Europe in July, you'd be overrun with guilt if you didn't stop by the tour once or twice.
Labels: cycling, netherlands
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