Spain comes to Hollanda

Strange but true - La Vuelta (the Tour of Spain) began on Saturday in Assen, here in the Netherlands! And for the first 4 stages the cyclists rode through the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium - with stage 3 yesterday here in the local area, beginning in Zutphen and passing through Berg en Dal and Groesbeek :-)

If you look really closely, you can just see the peleton here behind the start car.

The weather was perfect (a sunny 25C), and we both had the day off so we drove first to Zutphen to see the start at 1.00pm and then on to Berg en Dal for pancakes and to watch the whole circus pass through at around 4.15pm. And it really is a circus - dozens of team cars, press motorcycles, police motorcycles, helicopters buzzing overhead, and plenty of other assorted official vehicles.

I managed to get some photos at the start in Zutphen, but it was REALLY difficult! The sun was in my eyes so I couldn't actually see what I was shooting, AND they cycle past so quickly that everything becomes a bit of a blur :-/ I was really just pointing and shooting randomly, BUT I did manage to get a shot (even though somewhat out of focus LOL) of Andy Schleck of the Saxo Bank Team and the runner up in this year's Tour de France; and one of the Aussie cyclist Matthew Lloyd of Silence Lotto and the current Australian road race champion! Total luck actually because you so cannot see who is who as they cycle past.

Andy Schleck -

number 191 Saxo Bank

Matthew Lloyd -

number 167 Silence Lotto










I really loved it (though not sure Jeroen was so impressed). Even though it takes only about 15 seconds for the whole peleton to pass, the colour and the noise of all those bicycles is very cool. Oh, and it helps that those boys all look buff and suntanned in their cycling outfits ;-))

Alli xxx