More from Denmark

Nine of us from Komet Club Rouleur (plus "wags") and Patch from Malmö and Bea of course crammed into a couple of cars and journeyed across land and sea to see the Giro d'Italia's grand depart in Herning, Denmark. 

 The first stage was an 8,7 km time trial, not technically a prologue (which top out at 8 km aparently) through the city center.  The weather was clear, but it was cold, and the public turnout, as evidenced by the totally empty beer garden behind our prime viewing location, was maybe not as great as had been hoped for.  Too bad for the organizers, but it meant more breathing room for us, even if we had to battle the cold.

Mark Cavendish went by in a flash of black...

Bea was impressed...

American and former pink jersey wearer Christian Vande Velde.

At the start, you could watch the UCI officials checking the legality of each bike.

Here's Taylor Phinney just before his race.  He went on to win of course.

And earlier in the day, saw another American and bike racer progeny Peter Stetina.

Fränk Schleck warming up.  We decided to walk to the finish, and unfortunately missed the rides of a lot of great racers, though we saw other sights instead, like third-place Rasmussen taking some cool-down laps. 

And the broom wagon.

The Ag2r mechanics had to deal with auto-trouble.  In this case I suppose preferable to bike-trouble.

Ivan Basso and Fillipo Pozzato after their races.

 After finding our way to Söndervig on the North Sea coast and our amazing accomodations, we had a late dinner of wiener schnitzel and beer, and took a late night dip in the indoor pool.

Bea enjoyed the waters the next morning...

We had a leisurely morning and a big breakfast of fresh baked bread, scrambled eggs, bacon, etc. and lots of coffee.  The weather was much more pleasant, though far from warm, so we walked the two kilometers up to see the first sprint points awarded in the race.  The peloton was a good twelve minutes behind the three man breakaway, and Cav took the points of course.

Afterwards we walked to the beach, and clambered on abandoned German bunkers,  and beachcombed for amber.  Before beginning our long and stressful road adventure home.

Our home for the weekend.  Beds for 12, indoor pool, sauna, jacuzzi, pool table, foosball, wifi...  We're coming here again!

We took Patch to Århus, which gave us too tight a time margin to make our ferry, which was compounded by some sort of road work on the route.  We pulled into the terminal as our 20.00 boat was pulling out of port.  We got booked on a 22.30 for a minor fee and ate dinner at an "American" burger place a'la Red Robin or similar, with decent beer.  Were in bed by 3.00 this morning.