Breda will be the start and finish place of the third stage in the Tour of Spain on Saturday 21 August. The cyclists’ visit to the Grote Kerk, just after departure, must be the highlight. Not just of the day, but of the entire Vuelta. “When they get on the podium in Madrid later, they should remember this moment.”
Breda is eagerly looking forward to the moment when the first cyclists will cycle over the bridge at the Castle of Breda on Sunday at 12.10 pm to start the Breda-Breda stage. But maybe even more so to the short stop just after that. The peloton goes straight through the Grote Kerk, the apple of the Nassau city’s eye.
“The four riders in the leader’s jerseys get off at the church and enter the church through the back to light a candle,” says Breda alderman Daan Quaars proudly. “After that, the rest of the peloton will follow and the city will explode when they leave the church at Kerkplein. Then there will be a battle in the West Brabant country to finish in Breda again.”
“In order not to get a church full of bobo’s, the mayor and I are not there.”
“The moment in church should really be a moment of silence and reflection,” continues Quaars. “We have agreed that with the board of the Grote Kerk as respect for the faith. Here the riders have a minute to commemorate people who really mattered to them.”
“Mayor Paul Depla and I will therefore not be present in the church at that time. We want to set a good example, because before you know it the Grote Kerk will be full of bobo’s. Then that moment of silence will be lost and we want that not.”
A funny ruse has been devised to get the leader of the mountain classification (the white jersey with blue dots) into the church. Because the first two stages in the Netherlands are as flat as a dime, a small pimple in Utrecht has been turned into executioner. “On the Amerongse mountain, the best climber can earn one point,” says Daan Quaars with a laugh. “That doesn’t help the ranking, but then you have a leading role in our beautiful church!”
Watch the video of the first episode of the series ‘Spaanse Brabanders – Our boys in the Vuelta’. In it alderman Daan Quaars who already visited the Grote Kerk by bike, but also former rider Mathieu Hermans who won a stage in the Vuelta nine times.
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