Take the filthy wet weather from a Flanders Spring Classic, add the road surface from the back lanes of the Isle of Wight about 20 years ago and spread them all over a Cantabrian mountain, with a sprinkle of gravel, rocks on one side and unguarded drops on the other. Lovely.
Fancy a nice day in the pain cave?
For Aussie stage winner Jay Vine, there was no spectacular finish line celebrations – or perhaps there were, because hardly anyone couple see in the fog with about 20 metres visibility. It was his first victory on an actual road, because a couple of years ago this was his natural environment, as a star of e-sports and winner of the Zwift World Championship which was his entry into professional road cycling. As he ground his way up those last chilling, drenching kilometres to the top of the mountain, he must surely have had some nostalgia for the days he could race indoors?
Meanwhile in his wake was a terrific race which culminated in Remco Evenepoel show his class, leaving the rest of the GC favourites behind and taking the red jersey. Perhaps the Belgian felt at home in the rain?
Team of the Day
The only team to select the winner of Stage 6 was Philippa’s It’s all downhill from here, but for the team performance of the day it’s Dr James’ Porridge Eaters who, after a few stages in hibernation, have burst into form:
There’s Remco Evenepoel in 2nd, Jai Hindley in 8th, Carlos Rodriguez in 9th, Simon Yates in 10th and João Almeida in 11th! Chapeau.
When in Bilbao …
… well, when I arrived on my own in Bilbao I found a cheap hostel and was keen to practice my language skills which I had half-heartedly worked at in the previous weeks. So I said to the hostel manager, in tentative Spanish, “I apologise for my poor Spanish – this is my first ever day in Spain.” He glowered at me and wagged his finger “No no no, young man, you are NOT in Spain yet!” By the next morning I had learned enough to greet him in the Basque language (“Egunon zer moduz zaude”) and he was all smiles. Phew! (Later that week there were three ETA terrorist bomb attacks on tourist areas.)
Seriously though, if you are in Bilbao, don’t miss the bridges and seafood restaurants and the amazing Guggenheim Museum where The Puppy sits outside (he’s lovely!) and seek out a pelota vasca game – spectacular and a bit terrifying as – in some variants – the ball travels up to 200 kph.
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