Tour de France 2009 pic

Thunder, lightening, hailstones and pouring rain greeted the riders as they massed for the start of the race, but this cleared away about an hour before departure and the weather gradually improved with some sun and warmth as the race progressed. The route zig-zagged south-east inland from Dunkerque, France, very soon crossing the border into Belgium and then returning to the coast near Ostende before turning inland once more towards the finish at Ghent. The pancake flat arable countryside looking almost ready for harvest, with long straight roads alongside long straight canals punctuated by an occasional town or village of grey or ochre houses with red roofs. This landscape of North and South Flanders was a very different terrain from the rolling and winding tree lined lanes of Kent through which the Tour rode only yesterday. Interesting highlights along the way were a town labelled by Eurosport as Middelkerke, dwarfed by its church spire and a stretch of canal labelled as l’Yser. Later there were delightful castles, two of which caught my eye: the moated Chateau of Wijnendaele built in the 17th and 18th centuries, a neat semi circular chateau in the centre of a round island surrounded by an equally round moat, both of which could have been drawn by a compass and

the Flemish Renaissance Chateau of Ooidonk, (pictured) an equally neat square chateau of warm red brick with round corner towers in a square round cornered moat. Brooding ahead was a ominous storm cloud from which the occasional flash of lightening could be seen and sure enough the rain came down. After a heavy downpour, the rain seemed to stop quite quickly for the run into Ghent (pictured above) and the helicopter gave us some great aerial shots of attractive buildings, St Bavo’s Cathedral and another moated castle, which was not named in the television coverage. (19 July – More information about this castle, which I have been told is called Gravensteen, can be found in the comments for this post.)

A three man breakaway (Sieberg, Herve and Perez) lasted for about 125km until just inside the final 3km when they were overtaken by the Peloton. Shortly afterwards there was a huge crash on the damp greasy road leaving a relatively small number of riders to race for the finish, whilst those caught behind the pile up could only turn round to watch the action on a nearby large screen. First and second places went to the Belgians, Gert Steegmans and team-mate Tom Boonen (Quickstep). Boonen had been tipped to win but was just pipped to the post, possibly due to an error of judgement by Steegmans, as the riders were well aware of the constant threat of quick finisher Robbie McEwan who was not far behind. In the end Boonen, who did not seem too upset at his lead out man’s success, was rewarded as he took the green points jersey from McEwan. Briton David Millar (Saunier Duval) retains the polka dot jersey. There was one retirement after Stage 1, Eduardo Gonzalo Ramirez (Agritubel) who crashed through the rear window of one of the race cars. It remains to be seen if there will be more retirements and how many riders will be nursing injuries following the big crash just before the finish, but hopefully the start numbers will not be too depleted for Stage 3 starting in Belgium and finishing back in France.