Benelux Tour - Den Helder
Do you ever read cyclingnews and say, "Hey, there's a protour race nearby tomorrow. I think I'll go check it out."? Unfortunately you can't say that in the US, not yet anyway. But if you're in Europe, you'd probably say that all the time. The Benelux tour is the ProTour's creation, because the individual tours of Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxemburg, aren't cool enough on their own...at least not as cool as the Tour of Poland says the UCI. This year's Benelux tour didn't even go to Luxemburg, so it's more the Bene tour. This year it started in Den Helder, an hour north of Amsterdam.
My favorite road cycling event to spectate is a prologue. You get to see everyone one at a time over several hours. You can watch the big names warm up, see all the team cars, walk around to different points along the course. Which sure beats 200 guys flying by in less than 5 seconds.
Being a ProTour event, all the big teams and the big names were there. Star attraction of course is Tom Boonen. Racers are passing by the staging area. Are the people watching them race? Some are, but a lot more (including me) are next to the Quick Step bus watching Boonen warm up. If more people are watching you warm up than are watching someone else race, you just might be a Tom Boonen. Even my video clip of him warming up has been viewed over 2500 times on YouTube. It's my most viewed clip of this blog:
The one drawback to watching a race in person, is that you don't see the finish or know who won, unless of course you're at the finish line or quick enough to get to the podium ceremony. I guess a radio or portable TV would also help. In any event, it would be nice if they could post some unofficial results somewhere. As I found out later, George Hincapie was 2nd by half a second. George came back to take the lead of the race by one second, but on the last day, he was crashed out by Stefan Schumacher whose 2 second bonus gave him the win by 1 second. Yes, the same Schumacher who won the prologue by half a second. Maybe next year they can find some hills in the Benelux region so the time gaps aren't so close. Here are some nice pictures from the prologue:
View of the North Sea from Den Helder
My favorite road cycling event to spectate is a prologue. You get to see everyone one at a time over several hours. You can watch the big names warm up, see all the team cars, walk around to different points along the course. Which sure beats 200 guys flying by in less than 5 seconds.
Being a ProTour event, all the big teams and the big names were there. Star attraction of course is Tom Boonen. Racers are passing by the staging area. Are the people watching them race? Some are, but a lot more (including me) are next to the Quick Step bus watching Boonen warm up. If more people are watching you warm up than are watching someone else race, you just might be a Tom Boonen. Even my video clip of him warming up has been viewed over 2500 times on YouTube. It's my most viewed clip of this blog:
The one drawback to watching a race in person, is that you don't see the finish or know who won, unless of course you're at the finish line or quick enough to get to the podium ceremony. I guess a radio or portable TV would also help. In any event, it would be nice if they could post some unofficial results somewhere. As I found out later, George Hincapie was 2nd by half a second. George came back to take the lead of the race by one second, but on the last day, he was crashed out by Stefan Schumacher whose 2 second bonus gave him the win by 1 second. Yes, the same Schumacher who won the prologue by half a second. Maybe next year they can find some hills in the Benelux region so the time gaps aren't so close. Here are some nice pictures from the prologue:
 Big crowd watching Boonen warm up. |  Rabobank rider about to start. |  T-mobile getting low in a straightaway. | |
 View from a hill as Astana rider goes by. |  Getting close to the action. |  Spectators on a hill cheering on a Lampre rider. | |
 CSC warms up. |  Swede Magnus Backstedt, looking intimidating as always. |  World champion Tom Boonen warming up. | |
 Backstedt takes a turn. |  Boonen without a rainbow jersey in the time trial. |  George Hincapie (USA) loses this TT by half a second. |
View of the North Sea from Den Helder
Labels: cycling, netherlands
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