Aside from giving domestic pros a chance to mix it up against the best in the world, events like the Tour of Missouri are fertile ground for cultural exchange as well:
From Jeremy Powers of Team Jelly Belly: “…through the feedzone I watched this Quickstep dude hang onto his feed bag for 5K before tossing it to a cute girl. He said ‘DID YOU SEE?’ I said ‘yeah…nice job buddy’. He then explained: his soigneur puts a Polaroid picture of himself with his number on the bags. In his deep Belgie voice finishes it off with ‘YAH, old Belgian trick it works everytime.'”
(via Competitive Cyclist)
That’s a classic. I wonder if it ever really worked for him?