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Steve Burton & Carl Lindop on the
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River Lek Ferry
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Dordrecht in South Holland was the base for Calder Clarion’s channel hop long weekend to watch the prologue and frst two stages of the Giro D’ Iitalia which started in Amsterdam on Saturday 8th May. They were treated to a prologue win by Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) who became the second Englisham to wear the Maglia Rosa. He certainly looked to be travelling quickest as he passed our group on the packed circuit with 2k to go.
Sunday saw our group cycle to Utrecht which took them on a 100 mile round trip involving a car ferry and a cycle only ferry.
On Monday morning the group left heir hotel on the edge of the Hollandse-Biesbosch National Park and drove to the Europort (Rotterdam) free longstay carpark. We took the superb cycle lanes South over the huge Hartelkanaal and into quiet woodlands and dunes of the Gorree Peninsula which took them to a roadside vantage point for stage 2 of the Giro. The race hurtled past led by the Astana team chasing down a 3 man breakaway before the finish in Middelburg where Vinoukorov took the overall lead from Cadel Evans. The whole population of the peninsula appeared to have cycled to watch the giro as the group found themselves sharing the cycle tracks with 100s of men, women and children of all ages returning home.
We meandered back through delightful woodlands to the village of Oostvourne for lunch before heading back to the cars for the overnight Ferry to Hull.
