Boonen Botches As Steegmans Steals It

Somehow, I am addicted to (watching) cycling.

I love the flat stages where the sprinters sprinting like there is no tomorrow in often dangerous circumstances.

I love the climbing stages where all riders suffer and grimace all the way up the insurmountable hills.

I love the stunning scenery where people could just spend days after days there doing absolutely nothing, which is one of my all-time goals.

That's why I have been spending lots of times recently watching the Giro d'Italia, Dauphine Libere and Tour de France on TV.

Okay, back to the races.

The first couple of stages in the Tour are not exciting as expected, with all the big names preserving energy for the upcoming mountain stages. While the lesser-known have been mounting attacks after attacks, so far all of them have been reeled in and eaten up by the peloton eventually.

So the big crash some two kilometres before the end of stage two in Belgium is THE highlight of the Tour so far.

With barriers at the side of the road in the final kilometres (as per cycling rules), a fallen rider in front will give those behind nowhere to go. And that is exactly what had happened and, worse still, Fabian Cancellara, the maillot jaune, was also involved and could be seen favouring his left arm as he gingerly crossed the finish line. But the good news is, he looked okay during the trophy presentation afterwards.

(As per cycling rules, riders who have fallen within the final three kilometres will be credited with the same time as the group they were in at the time of crash. As all the riders were bunched up together when the crash happened, none of the riders will lose time as they will all be credited with the same finishing time.)

Only some 20-plus riders were lucky enough to be ahead of the crash and emerge unscathed. In the end Gert Steegmans won the stage, ahead of his team leader Tom Boonen, to give Belgium a rare one-two on home soil.

To me though, it looked like the result of a miscommunication by the two as Steegmans was supposed to lead out Boonen for the finish line. But Boonen somehow was unable to overtake Steegmans, while the latter did not slow down just enough for his team leader through.

They will say all the want about how proud they are to give Belgium a one-two on home soil. Well, who knows what will happen in their team truck?