Giro d'Italia: Leiden leg

The Giro d'Italia is the most important cycle race in the world after the Tour de France. While it is a tour of Italy, this year the organisers have included three days of racing in The Netherlands. The race was to come through Leiden's central street Breestraat, on its way to Utrecht from Amsterdam.
A great proportion of the town's cycling-mad population lined the streets to cheer on the cyclists. Nothing can beat an article on the official Giro d'Italia website describing Amsterdam's passion for cycling: http://www.gazzetta.it/Speciali/Giroditalia/en/04-05-2010/amsterdam-s-giro-fevera-city-that-lives-on-2-wheels-603867826236.shtml

As Marco Pastonesi writes:

The party has already started here - or maybe it never ended. Every day, over the canals and in the cycle lanes, nearly half a million bicycles are in use. And every day these nearly half a million bicycles travel over 2 million kilometres around the city. At every traffic light, at every intersection, at every roundabout a group, a peloton, a gathering of urban cyclists forms - from children to grandparents, from tourists to managers, from mothers with children to taxis with their fares. Rain, wind, cold weather are never a problem, never mind a day like today when the sun occasionally comes out. Amsterdam lives, breathes, celebrates - and pedals.

THE CITY OF BICYCLES — There are just four days to go until the start of the Giro d'Italia, and Amsterdam is not getting ready to welcome riders and teams, race officials and fans, but only because its normal, chaotic, colourful multi-ethnic (and multi-ethical) circus does not need to get ready, to do itself up, to pretend. It's already ready - it's always ready. There are 400 kilometres of cycle paths in the city centre; bicycles have absolute priority on the road; there are 140 bike shops; 55 per cent of city commuting is done by bicycle; 17 per cent of families have three or more bikes; 75 per cent of Amsterdam's residents over the age of 12 own a bike, and half of them use their bikes every day.

A HOST OF INITIATIVES — This is heaven on earth for human-powered two-wheelers: you never cease to be amazed. And yet more can be done, things can be done better, as the local authorities who wanted the Giro to "relaunch" the use of bikes know: it seems that 6 per cent of the citizens of Amsterdam don't know how to ride a bike. After Queen's Day, the day of celebrations for the Queen on 30 April, Amsterdam has turned its attention to the Giro.

I guess they all either want to marry a certain cyclist or have his babies.

Both young and old generations coming out to celebrate cycling. And look: there is Leiden's very own Churchill.

The cyclists whizzed by amazingly fast. It was even dangerous, with the peloton only inches from a crowded sidewalk. I could feel the wind passing by just like a train in a tunnel. The cyclists were blurringly fast. Cycling photos taken at 1/1600 (and that is why there is no blur).