Scheldeprijs, Wednesday, 6th of April 2011

Today, Bananas About Bikes will actually report a more recent race. Our fellow bloggers on Tumblr, Ilona and Tet, went to this year's Scheldeprijs.

Ilona (ilona89.tumblr.com) is a 21 year old Dutch girl. She grew up with cycling since her dad is a fan of cycling too. When she was 6 years old, she visited her first Tour de France. Now her favourite riders are Linus Gerdemann and Tom Stamsnijder, both very cute boys.

Tet, (leopardfever.tumblr.com) is an 18 year old student from the Netherlands. She's addicted to twitter and all sorts of sports, especially cycling. Her favourite riders are Stefan Denifl, Giacomo Nizzolo, Jakob Fuglsang, Davide Viganò and just any other Leopard Trek rider. Their full report and more photos can be found on their blogs. This is a shorter version of the whole story. Mar has narrowed the post, trying to get the highlights for you.

On Tuesday the 5th April, Tet had to leave the far north of the Netherlands in order to be able to leave early enough the next morning. Ilona lives in the southern part of the Netherlands so the girls decided to have a little Pre-Scheldeprijs sleepover. It was the best way to start their adventure.

The next day, both girls had to wake up at 5:30am. This made them regret their long conversations during the night before. Why were they doing this again? Ah well, that's easy. Ilona wanted to see Fabian Cancellara and Tom Stamsnijder. Tet is Giacomo Nizzolo's biggest fan, so she couldn't wait to finally see him. The two girls dressed up in their Leopard outfits and ran to the bus-stop. Breakfast and make up could also be done later, in the train. The train left at 6.53am which caused some confusion among the not very awake girls.

"Ilona: Why is there standing 653?

Tet: Eh, you mean... 6:53 it’s the time...

Ilona: Oh! Hey, yeah I was thinking about prices from the stockmarket or something, how should I know?"

After a not very smooth train ride, which is almost normal in the Netherlands, our girls arrived in Antwerp, Belgium. They asked for a map at the local Tourist Information and went for a walk through Antwerp. Their walk ended at the place where the buses should arrive. Of course, Ilona and Tet were way too early. That made it easier to find a great spot. They settled themselves on a short pillar/bridge thing which was higher so they had a perfect overview of the area.

Slowly the team buses started to enter Antwerp. All our Leopard Trek fangirls wanted to see was the Leopard bus. They had to be patient. First, the Saur Sojasun bus came by and the riders in the front seat couldn't stop looking at the girls and almost broke their neck by twisting to stare at them. The same thing happened when Cofidis passed. Tet and Ilona were popular! When Quick Step came, Tet had a moment with Tom Boonen. She was hanging around the pillar to check what bus it was and he sat in the front of the bus and he looked straight at her. She just stared back, not able to respond to what was happening.

All of a sudden Ilona looked at the right and screamed LEOPARD! So the girls followed the bus and tried to catch a glimpse of the boys. They managed to find a way to look at Fabian. He was just relaxing when he found out two girls were staring at him. He smiled politely, but then closed the curtain with a very evil smile. After a long time of waiting, the first person to leave the bus was Wouter Weylandt. He was immediately attacked by all the Belgians, but Ilona managed to get an autograph and Tet even got a picture with him.

Not much later, Joost Posthuma left the bus. When walking to his bike, he stumbled and almost crashed in front of our Leopard fangirls. That was a good opportunity to ask him for a picture. Joost was friendly enough to smile for the camera, but it was impossible to get Ilona's smile and Joost's smile in one picture. Joost is a very tall guy, while Ilona is short. While Tet was struggling with the camera, Joost offered to bend a little so they would fit in one frame. Feeling a bit ashamed but very happy, Ilona got her picture with Joost that way. Right after that, Giacomo Nizzolo left the bus. For Tet, this was the highlight of the day. Giacomo might be a little unknown for some people, Tet is his biggest fan! He was happy to be asked for a picture. He even put his arm around Tet, which almost caused a heart attack.

Not long after that, the race was about to start and everyone left. When Tet and Ilona walked past the deserted buses, they even found some riders who were too late for the official start. Apparently that didn't bother those boys because they even had time for another picture! The girls found Michael Morkov and Jonas Aaen at the SaxoBank Sungard bus. After taking the picture, the boys couldn't stay for a little chat. They needed to catch the peloton. The girls walked to the start-line, where they saw a little traffic jam of team cars. Some riders, who also didn't start in time, were standing in the traffic jam like they were one of the team cars. Another great opportunity to ask for a photo for Ilona and Tet was with Matthew Hayman and Kurt Asle Arvesen. Then the team cars started to leave and the race had definitely left Antwerp. The girls sat down on a terrace to calm down from their exciting morning. Yes, they had a wonderful day.