Finally the day of days has arrived. The first Sunday in April in Bruges is one of the great occasions on the cycling calendar, and the 100th edition of the Tour of Flanders set out from beneath the city’s famous belfry amid all of the usual excitement.
It has been a trying couple of weeks for Belgium and for cycling, though the anticipated increase in security measures did little to diminish the size of the crowd that descended upon the start.
There was a sombre moment when the Wanty-Groupe Gobert team arrived to sign on. The riders were returning to action for the first time since their teammate Antoine Demoitié was tragically killed in a crash at Gent-Wevelgem last week, and they took to the podium wearing t-shirts bearing an image of their late companion.
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A minute’s silence in memory of Demoitié was impeccably observed on Bruges’ normally raucous market square, before the crowd broke into warm applause. “It’s been a hard week. We can’t change things but we have to go on,” Marco Marcato said. “We know we have someone extra up above. We’re competing with nine riders today, not eight. We’re riding for Antoine and his family.”
Away from the signing-on podium, UCI inspectors were carrying out controls for motors, with the Belga news agency later reporting that they had used iPads to scan the bikes of every rider in the peloton, as well as their spare bikes, but no anomalies had been detected.
The big favourite for the race is Fabian Cancellara (Trek-Segafredo), lining out in the Ronde for the final time in his career. The Swiss rider is seeking to become the first man to win the race four times, and he hailed the multitudes from the signing-on podium.
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