Vincenzo Nibali continues his victory celebration in Belgium
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Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) in yellow as the 2014 Tour de France winner.(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) on his way to winning stage 18 atop Hautacam(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Vincenzo Nibali lofts his prizes above his head(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Vincenzo Nibali’s 2014 Tour de France victory celebration didn’t end on the Champs-Élysées in Paris but continued into the popular post-event criteriums. The Astana rider was joined by many of his professional colleagues during the series of races that offered cycling fans a show and a continued celebration of the French Grand Tour.
The Profronde van Lommel held in Belgium on July 30, was one of many criteriums held after the Tour to allow cycling fans to see the teams, racers and jersey winners, including the malliot jaune, in action. Race organizers offer marquee riders appearance fees and the results are typically fixed, beforehand, but that hasn’t seemed to take anything away from the excitement for many cycling fans who come to enjoy the show.
“It feels great,” said Nibali, who "won" the race. “I’m getting a lot of attention and I’m very happy with the warmth all these people are giving me.”
The twilight criterium was the main attraction of a night full of festivities that hosted more than 16,000 spectators, and many of them also come to see sprinters like Omega Pharma-QuickStep’s Matteo Trentin and Giant-Shimano’s John Degenkolb.
“The passion of cycling, the people, they are living cycling and they love to be here to cheer us on in the race … it’s like a culture,” Degenkolb said.
In our latest InCycle video, find out more about the post-Tour de France criteriums and the Profronde van Lommel.
