Giromania!!

Amsterdam hosted the start of the 93rd Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) on Saturday with an 8.4 kilometre individual time trial from the museum square (Museumplein) to the Olympic Stadium. The Giro is the second most important long distance bicycle racing stage race after the Tour de France. In the Tour de France the leader of the general classification shows off in a yellow jersey, but the Italians prefer to be pretty in pink and favour the maglia rosa ( a pink jersey). The first Giro was in 1909 and Today there are 300million viewers of the Giro worldwide (not all in Amsterdam on Saturday obviously, some people stayed at home and watched it on telly). In this year’s Giro there are 22 teams, a total of 219 riders and it is run (or rode rather) over 21 stages.

Amsterdam encouraged “Giromania” in the city and pink balloons and banners decorated the streets. We walked to the start area but got squished in the moshpit so relocated to a spot 1km along the route where it wasn’t so congested. Alas the riders were too fast for us to get many award winning photographs. It didn’t stop us hanging our bodies over the railings and chancing a concussion trying though. But the mood was fun. Dutch Team Rabobank were popular with the crowd, their jersey is orange and blue and the crowd whooped as one of the riders zipped past.

We also spotted the notorious devil man. The devil man is a mischievous German bloke in his late 50’s who dresses in a red and black devil ensemble , clutches an aluminium devils fork and follows many of the European pro cycling routes. He paints the road with messages and chases the riders on foot. Apparently he is actually sponsored and has done some commentary for German TV.

The garbage collectors in Amsterdam have been on strike since before Queens Day so the streets were cluttered with rubbish and debris. Not so nice.And bad timing. They want an extra 1.5% pay. Give it to them I say.
Check out the award winning cinemaphotography in "Cyclist goes past really fast at Giro in Amsterdam" - just press play.