It’s already getting pretty busy in Boxmeer. This Monday, the day after the Tour professional cycling race will be held for the first time since the corona crisis. Thirty to forty thousand visitors are expected. Do they all come for cycling? “We often don’t know who won the race.”
Pierre Hermans can’t believe his luck, this 25th July. Finally, the lap boss can greet the riders, who are at the start at eight o’clock. “I am as proud as a peacock. This is wonderful”, reports Hermans, who breathed new life into the event years ago. For the past two years, he had to fight back when COVID-19 interfered with the organization of the criterium.
No ‘jersey winners’
But this day, cycling enthusiasts can finally get their money’s worth. They are happy to be there, although the winners of the yellow, green and white jersey and that of the mountains classification of the latest Tour de France are missing. However, several Dutch drivers will compete for victory, such as Mathieu van de Poel, who had to leave the Tour de France tired, and Danny van Poppel, who comes from Moergestel, who ‘survived’ the cycling spectacle.
“It is always a unique happening here in Boxmeer. It’s just one big party,” one of the early spectators told our reporter. “We mainly come for the atmosphere. Glad that corona is over, then it can go wild here,” adds another.
The public does not only come from Boxmeer and its immediate surroundings, someone from Nuenen has already registered and cycling enthusiasts from Germany and Belgium are usually also expected.
‘Signature of Pedro Delgado’
However, autograph sessions, like those in the past, are out of the question this Monday. At least formally. This is due to the fact that corona is still not completely gone. But a bit of cheeky cycling fan knows how to get riders to sign an autograph. Tristan from Beugen, for example, has already ‘scored’ a number of them. He didn’t get his collecting and his love for cycling from a stranger. Father Marcel: “I have been coming here from a young age, at least about thirty. Best event in the region. I even saved the signatures of Pedro Delgado when he drove here.”
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