Tweets of the Week: Tanks v Tractors, Vikings and caged fans

It was a busy week in the cycling calendar last week. We have a look at the Eneco Tour – from Boonen to Quinziato and we get a few Wellens kisses. Then we fly north to check out the little bit of Viking craziness in the Arctic Race, not to mention our bodyweight in salmon. Then we bring them together in a battle of the heavy equipment! A long drink of Pinot in the gruppetto and that’s your Tweets of the Week.

Rain and climbs and the Muur

The Eneco Tour really did live up to its reputation as a spring classic in late summer. It had rain, it had cobbles, it had Big Tom Boonen winning a stage!

Eneco Boonen 1 Eneco Boonen 2FDJ’s Johan Le Bon won one of the wettest stages in a while – and once again we were reminded as to why white shorts are not the best of ideas. Many Duran Duran lyrics were thrown around. I count us all very lucky that Matteo Bono wasn’t the second person in that two-man break or we’d never have heard the end of it.

Eneco Le Bon 1a Eneco Le Bon 1b Eneco Le Bon 2

One of the most popular wins of the race was a breakaway win (with a nailbiting finish) by the lovely Manuel Quinziato. That he won on the Muur was even better (and oh, how we miss that fantastic climb in the Tour of Flanders…)

Eneco Quinziato 1 Eneco Quinziato 3 Eneco Quinziato 4 eneco Quinziato 5 Eneco Quinziato 6

The day before, he was looking pretty frisky for a while – it’s no surprise that he was able to take the stage win on Sunday.

Eneco Quinziato 7

The winner of the Eneco gets a kiss.

Eneco Wellens kiss 2 Eneco Wellens kiss 3

Although maybe it wasn’t as nice as she thought it was going to be. Ewwww, sweaty.

Eneco Wellens kiss 4

The win, it can be told, was really down to the champion’s roommate.

Eneco Henderson 2 Eneco Henderson Win 1

Salmon and Tanks and Vikings

The Arctic Race is a great race – beautiful scenery, a good combination of World Tour and Pro Conti teams and a little bit of crazy.

Arctic house

This looks like one of those Hallmark moments where Thor is thinking about Alexandre Kristoff and Eddy Haagen-Dazs.

Arctic Hushovd

The guys in Eneco got kegs of beer, stage winners here win their bodyweight (well, their teams bodyweight) in salmon.

Arctic salmon 1

Arctic salmon 2

This is that little bit of crazy I was talking about.

Arctic TV

Whale? I didn’t think whales were supposed to be hunted anymore. I’m a bit disturbed by this tweet.

Arctic buffet

The Viking jersey is given to the teammate of the day – sort of the opposite of most aggressive rider, really. Seems odd, with the reputation that Vikings have, that it isn’t the other way around. But it’s good to see MTN-Qhubeka make a big noise no matter where in the world they are.

Eneco Viking jersey 1a

Eneco Viking jersey 1 Eneco Viking jersey 2

TANKS

We all love the synchronised tractor roadside performance art of Belgium and France but, wow!, the Norwegians have really upped the ante.

Tanks v Tractors Soldiers 1a Tanks v Tractors Soldiers 1b

The army base pulled out all the stops – or rather lined up all their tanks.

Tanks v Tractors 1a

Tanks v Tractors 1aa Tanks v Tractors 2

Then one of the tanks broke away and started to race the peloton itself. Personally, if I were riding along on my bike and suddenly I saw a ginormous tank next to me, I would have a hard time concentrating on the road. So kudos to the peloton for keeping their cool for the finish.

Tanks v Tractors 2a Tanks v Tractors 2aa Tanks v Tractors 2b

JournalVelo saw what this was really about – those tanks were basically a 5-ton heavy-metal gauntlet thrown down to the Belgian farmers. They responded with aplomb. I love how neatly the tractors are lined up – do they get together at a farmers meeting to decide when and where they’re going to line up, I wonder?

Tanks v Tractors 3 Tanks v Tractors 4

The gruppetto

Nice to see Nico and Bennati have kept up their friendship. They look happy, don’t they?

G Benna Roche

“Hello, hi honey. Yes, I can pick up some bread and milk on my way home. Just need to finish this race first.”

G car phone

That must have been one smelly interview.

G cows

So the Derby Velodrome was the place to be this weekend (if you weren’t in Belgium or Norway). Does Cav realise that Brad is not listening to him?

G Derby 1

G Derby 2

Custom paint jobs for Purito.

G Purito helmets 1 G Purito helmets 2

Shoes for doping solutions.

G shoes

I didn’t realise that Tao Geoghegan Hart was a ginger.

G Tao Sky

Strava continues to be popular with riders (clarification: a lot of riders, not all riders). And these crazy kids were in Rio, testing out the Olympic route – and having fun on the beach.

G Thibaut rio 3

G Thibaut Rio 1

G Thibaut rio 2a

G Thibaut rio 2

It’s our lucky Lotto box for the Vuelta! Adam Hansen – going for number 13!

G Vuelta box 1 G Vuelta box 2

The last word

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