The Vuelta a España bicycle race started last weekend. After a series of
relatively flat stages, yesterday things got serious. Stage 7 contained six
mountain passes over 152 km, finishing in the mountains near Tibi, one of my
cycling destinations. So I took the afternoon off to go and see the race. I
planned to cycle to Tibi and catch the Vuelta at the top of the penultimate
mountain pass of the stage. But the climb to Tibi is very tough, and inland
temperatures were going to hit 40C during the afternoon. Driving was not an
option (you go to see a bicycle race on a bicycle, or else you stay home and
watch on TV). So instead, I cycled to Jijona, about 24 km away, and found a
great spot with shade, shared with a nice local family. It was on a steep
uphill, so the speed of the cyclists would be moderate (all relatively
speaking, of course), and at that point the cyclists would have 120-125 km and
four passes in their legs, so I knew the peleton would be nicely spread out,
and it would take 20-30 minutes for everyone to pass. And so it was.
What I like about cycling from a spectator’s point of view is that in no other
professional sport can you get so close to the competitors. I could have
touched the cyclists if I had wanted to. But I settled for photos, and a small
gallery of 29 images is now uploaded. Some of the images are not technically
perfect but I included them anyway because they show the effort and suffering
of the cyclists. Where I could identify the cyclists, I have done so in the
captions. It’s all here:
https://www.greatpix.eu/La-Vuelta-in-Jijona/
<https://www.greatpix.eu/La-Vuelta-in-Jijona/>
As always, comments and critique are welcome and appreciated.
Nathan
Nathan Wajsman
Alicante, Spain
http://www.frozenlight.eu <http://www.frozenlight.eu/>
http:// <http://www.greatpix.eu/>www.greatpix.eu
PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
<http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws>Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/
<http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/>
Cycling: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator
<http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator>
YNWA
"I’m not arguing, I’m just explaining why I’m right"
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