Team Giant-Shimano this week held its first Fan Day, in cooperation with several of the team's partners at the Fortuna Sittard Stadion in The Netherlands.

On Wednesday 15 October Giant, Liv, Shimano, BORN, Unigarant, Vliegtickets.nl, as well as the team's charity partner Trees for All, joined the riders and staff for a day designed to bring the team to the fans. The idea of the day is to give the fans further access to the riders, staff and also the important partners of the team.

The riders were presented to the fans during the event with whom they mingled for the afternoon for signatures, photos, and the chance to speak to and find out more about the stars of the professional peloton.

"For our first Fan Day it was nice to see so many people come," explained Tom Veelers after the event. "It was a nice way for the fans to meet the team as sometimes it is not possible to spend a lot of time with them at races."

Veelers was also awarding one lucky winner with two VIP places to the 2015 Tour of Flanders with the team, and said of this: "The winner will now see the team from a completely different angle, one that they would perhaps never see, which is also really nice for them."

Iwan Spekenbrink, Team Giant-Shimano general manager welcomed the fans on the day, saying: "The team works to connect with the fans and this is another great way of opening up the team to them. We have done rides already at different races around the world including Dubai and in Yorkshire at the Tour, and this is something that we want to continue working on to engage our supporters."

Visitors were not only able to meet the professionals and staff of the team, they were also able to take a tour of the team bus, test out the latest Giant bicycles, receive nutritional advice and also get their hands on some official team kit.

The following day the riders attended a Tech Day where all the technical partners of the team came together to analyse and measure the riders across many different areas to optimise the fit and feel of next season's clothing and equipment. This Tech Day brings to an end a very successful season for Team Giant-Shimano, and preparations are already well underway for an exciting 2015.