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:
Muur van Geraardsbergen
“Whosoever crests the the Muur first shall winneth the Ronde” – a summer visit to this hill climb legend.
- Originally published: 4 Aug 2008 in Europe
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At last! My personal project to develop a web application on doping in pro cycling is finally released after a year’s hard work.
- Originally published: 12 Oct 2011 in Information design
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After a hard winter and a week of rain, we go roadside at the opening race of the 2010 Spring Classics season in professional road cycling.
- Originally published: 28 Feb 2010 in Editorial
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Lower Lesse
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- Originally published: 13 Jun 2010 in Walking
Who you gonna call?
Hello you, I'm Mike Padgett. I'm not a Princeton curator, Knoxville mayoral candidate, Kentuckian pastor or Arizona journalist, I just share the same name. In fact, I am a consultant working in user experience and information design.
I also enjoy travel, concerts, films and walking.
I'm originally from Yorkshire, England but nowadays I live in Belgium. My current favourite Belgian beer is Black Albert.
Shameless self-promotion
Over a year in the making, Dopeology.org is my latest personal project: a topology of doping in thirty years of European pro road cycling.
I collected information from thousands of sources, then I modelled and published it via a lightweight user interface.
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