Natour Criterium Sint Niklaas
— A thriving criterium circuit brings the stars of the Tour de France to small town Belgium.”
Cancellara surveys the crowd at Sint Niklaas
When I was a young cyclist, the end of the Tour de France felt like the end of the world. The Vuelta was a spring event back then and the World Championships, Paris-Tours and Lombardy were still distant.
Here in Belgium, as in neighbouring France and the Netherlands, there’s a thriving post-Tour criterium circuit to enjoy while you wait.
Today in Sint Niklaas, the police shut down the town centre in the late afternoon. Hordes of beer and sausage sellers set up their stalls. Then the crowds turn up. In droves.
Sint Niklaas Criterium
After the Tour de France, it's time for the post-Tour criteriums: two hours of showboat cycling in a town near you!
For a couple of hours in the failing light of a summer evening, a bunch of local Davids take on the Goliaths of the sport. Bitter rivalries are played out once again with a knowing smile. Meanwhile the spectators dish out encouragement or mild abuse just the same as if this were the Ronde.
Schleck and Cancellara smile and speak awkward niceties into a pre-race microphone. The pace is never allowed to get too high, even if Ivan Basso is wearing his best painface. Vinokourov lurks deep in the bunch: he still has to get to San Sebastián in good condition for tomorrow’s Classic.
Even in the absence of a genuine competitive element, the Flemish passion for cycling goes freewheeling around this circuit. Kids climb the barriers for a better view. Girls admire the legs that just rode 3,000km. Demure old ladies suddenly lose their reserve and bawl out for a local hero.
This is showboat cycling, the closest thing on two wheels to exhibition tennis or professional wrestling. And it’s terrific.
See also:
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