Tour de France

Today was the day of the first stage of the Tour de France 2010, from Rotterdam in the Netherlands to Brussels in Belgium. The stage was 223.5km. My brother came over from the Netherlands to watch the riders with us near the finish in Brussels near the Atomium.

And a spectacular final it was, because of several crashes. The first was on the last turn of the stage. With about 800m to go, another accident halted the progress of all but about 40 riders. Petacchi won the sprint in the end.

When you are watching the final from the side (we were at the 500m mark) you first don't know anything about the crashes, except for the fact that there is not a big pack of riders passing. On the picture you see one of the injured riders that is helped by his teammates.