La Vuelta Media
“Ride half the distance of the 2020 Vuelta a Espana at the same time as the pros on local roads - just for the sake of it.” - That was the simple premise of a totally unnecessary and equally fun project that had me riding for 45 hours and 1.500km in three weeks.
Sun, Wind, Hills, Rain and the open Road
The 2020 Vuelta de Espana ran from mid October until the second week of November over 18 stages mostly in the north of Spain. As per usual the route went up many a steep hill in Basque country and small mountain roads in the Pyrenees and Cantabrian mountain ranges and ended in Madrid.
Being a road bike tifoso myself cycling is the only sport I do actually follow and with a local hero from a town close by (Enric Mas of Arta) being among the favorites, my interest in the race was even higher. From that interest the idea to ride half the distance of the pros on each race day emerged.
So for those three weeks the routine was: Ride a few hours in the morning and watch the race in the late afternoon (besides the usual other stuff that needs to be done). The race rest days I left the bike in the shed and we used those days for our weekly rock climbing outings.
As it turned out the weather for the first two weeks was almost perfect: Warmish temperatures with reasonable wind. Week three was a bit tougher with two days of rain and consistently strong wind. But looking at the actual racers I will not complain, as they did have to battle some pretty horrid cold and rainy conditions this year.
The final tally of this pursuit: 45 hours of riding, 1450km, 14.400m climbing and 24.000 calories burned (aka more cake etc. for me). Most importantly the whole thing was quite fun (and Enric got 5th in the end and won the young rider qualification).
PS: To finish things off we made a great tasting Paella on the final day...
Adventurer: Bengt