Eneco Tour prologue

Hello there! While many riders are suffering from post-Tour fatigue, the ladies from BAB have no time for post Tour depression. There has been a lot going on lately. Last week, the Eneco Tour started and your banana-reporter Mar was there.

The prologue was held in the middle of the Netherlands, in a very new quarter of the city Amersfoort, called Vathorst. As usual, the weather forecast didn't look very promising. It turned out pretty good though. The riders probably weren't happy with the strong wind, but the rain stayed away and we saw quite a bit of sunshine. Banana-reporter Mar visited the race with Ilona, a name you might remember from earlier posts.

Ilona and Mar are both big fans of Linus Gerdemann, so as soon as they got off the train, they went looking for the Leopard bus. They found the bus in a the very last corner of the bus area. It's not strange for Leopard Trek to park somewhere out of sight.

When our girls arrived, some riders were already warming up, while others just got off the team car. Mar and Ilona found a good spot to watch the warm up, and got kindly greeted by the mechanics. One guy even recognized Mar from Ster-ZLM and gave her a compliment about her new haircut. Not much later, Linus arrived and Ilona jumped up, asked him for a picture and pushed her camera in Mar's hands. While Ilona and Linus were posing, the camera decided not to work so Ilona could enjoy some more time next to Linus. Mar herself also wanted a pic and after that, both fangirls had to admit Linus smells very nice. They are still wondering what fragnance it is, or what shampoo he uses. Fangirls will be fangirls.

After that, it was time to wait for another German. The new daddy Fabian Wegmann was the next one to 'catch'. When he got off the car, it was Mar's time to jump up like a happy fangirl and ask for a picture. She still feels stupid for not congratulating Fabian on his new born son Otto.

Overall, there was a good atmosphere at Leopard Trek. There were not much people behind the barriers, but Mar and Ilona definitely weren't the only ones. As usual at races in the Netherlands, most people can be found at the Rabobank bus. This time, a lot of spectators gathered around team Sky. Mar and Ilona also spend quite some time there. The team brought Edvald Boasson Hagen with them, who can win the Eneco Tour right now! After his Tour de France stage victories and his win at Eneco Tour last year, he became quite popular.

Mar had a special wish to see Geraint Thomas and Ben Swift, and those two are a good reason to leave Leopard Trek for a while and walk to Team Sky. Giacomo Nizzolo was not happy to see his spectators leaving. He asked in his best English: You go? with a lovely sad face. He stole the hearts of Ilona and Mar with that. They promised him to come back and then left the poor neo-pro.

At Sky, the timing was perfect. Ben Swift was cooling down, while Geraint Thomas was warming up. For some reason, these guys belong together so Mar found it funny to see them ride next to eachother. Unfortunately, Sky placed their buses very fangirl-unfriendly. The riders were doing their warm up between the team bus and the mechanic bus. The light was bad, the distance was long but the riders looked happy.

Then it was Edvald's time to warm up. The mechanics spent a lot of time placing his bike in the perfect position and Eddie looked very concentrated when he left the bus. He did not look at any screaming fangirls, but just did his important warm up. Maybe he secretly looked at said screaming fangirl because later he missed the win by just a few seconds.

After watching Edvald doing his warm up for a while, it was time for Mar and Ilona to head back to Leopard Trek. They passed some other buses to see if there were some big names warming up. When it's busy at Omega Pharma Lotto, you know Philippe Gilbert is there. The same goes for other teams and other riders.

Back at their base camp Leopard Trek, Ilona and Mar saw Dominic wearing a famous (or infamous) Day Birger et Mikkelsen outfit. He was just chilling with his girlfriend and a dog, while other riders still had to do their race. It was a funny sight. Usually the riders head back to the bus and don't show their face anymore.

Talking about buses, at one point Leopard Trek invited a bunch of people into the bus for a quick tour inside. These people turned out to represent Trek. They wore Trek socks and had Trek umbrella's. Unfortunately, their cycling knowledge was limited. They were wondering where the Schlecks were. Not at Eneco Tour, Trek people! For Mar and Ilona it was a little frustrating to see how these people were allowed to enter the bus so easily.

When most riders had finished and left, it was also time for our banana-reporter to leave. Mar and Ilona had a last look at the time trial course and then headed home, knowing that Edvald did a good job and Gilbert was not far behind...

Let's end this post with a few pictures, made by Mar.