Spanish race report
Holland, Elliot Jacob
Race report
42nd Trofeo de la Virgen de la Cama
Escalante, Spain
It´s been a while since I´ve sent a note to the group so I thought I´d let you all know what racing is like here in Spain. I´m taking a language course, hanging out at the beach, and doing the northern Spanish races until the end of September.
Getting a license here was a little more complicated than in Belgium, you have to fax your license and insurance information to Madrid to get permission to enter races, but the bureaucracy was surprisingly easy to deal with. The local cycling federation has an office here in Santander with a guy who – as far as I can tell – sits around for 4 hours every day waiting for people to come in with paperwork questions. I was the only one in the office both when I dropped off and picked up my stuff, so it was pretty easy to get the scoop from him on the local scene.
Yesterday was my first race, the somewhat grandiosely named 42nd Trofeo de la Virgen de la Cama de Escalante, 106km long. I´m told that Miguel Indurain got second place here in 1987.
I don´t have a car here, so I rode out the 40km or so on the bike, which was a pretty good warmup with my backpack and all. I was among the first riders to arrive – 2.5 hrs before the start – because I wanted to allow plenty of time to figure out how to register and get lost along the way. Just like in Belgium, there was already a crowd of old guys hanging out at the bar that was promoting the race. They were pretty impressed that I had ridden from Santander to the start (¡Manera Antigua!) and that I was American, so there was a big commotion inside. I sat down at a café table to unpack my stuff and get some clif bars out to snack on, but the owner of the restaurant was already at my table bringing me – completely unsolicited – a plate of pasta and a bottle of mineral water. Then he went to go and get the mayor and the race promoter, who had a million questions about what I was doing in Spain, what I thought of Santander, what American racing is like, etc etc.
About 2 hours before the start, the other teams started showing up. The big teams (Saunier Duval amateurs, Scott, Caja Rural, Camargo-Ferroalta) come in custom painted, custom interior 15 passenger vans plus a cargo van for the bikes and a couple of support sedans. The smaller teams and individuals come in the typical Belgian style, in a couple crummy old cars packed with one rider, the dad, mom, grandpa, various uncles, and girlfriend. About half the teams were local Cantabrians, most of the rest were Basque, plus one team from Asturias and another from Navarra.
I went to registration (el control de firmas) when it opened up, which caused me some confusion, because as usual there were like 5 officials in their official cycling federation dress shirts surrounded by a gang of hangers-on who just like to look official, some of which also have scored official cycling federation shirts. I gave them my license and authorizations, they gave me my numbers, and I signed the big book. Then I asked ‘where do I pay’ to which they replied ‘No, pay after.’ Then I asked ‘how much do you pay?´ and they said it depends on what place you get, which is when I finally figured out that Spanish races don´t have an entry fee. Sweet! After shelling out $35 for parking lot crits with muy poco prize money in California, I have to say the European system is a lot nicer. A word of advice though – don´t fold your number so the race sponsor´s name doesn´t show – that´s the fashion in Belgium but here they get pissed off because that´s where all the money comes from.
Before the start we all gathered on the town plaza, and the race promoter called up teams one by one to line up on the main street. They gave call-ups to the Spanish amateur national champion, the leader of the Copa de España (like the Cal Cup, but, uh, better), and of course, and our honoured extranjeras – which turned out to be me, one Russian guy, and a bunch of Argentines. There were about 100 riders. First we did a neutral parade lap around town, through a bunch of narrow back alleys, and then back to the start line for the salida. We jetted off fairly fast, with 3-5 cars and a bunch of motorcycles ahead, and a caravan with about 10 team cars, neutral moto support, various dignitaries, and the ambulance behind us.
The route was 2 big loops with about 10 small climbs of 200-300 feet. The roads are a lot wider in Spain than Belgium, so even though we were cooking along at 28-30 mph on the flats, it wasn´t that hard to just stay in the group. There was a little bit of crosswind but the Spanish don´t seem to race as aggressively as the Begians on the flats, so the field never got strung out in the gutter like it does in the kermesses. It´s much closer to the American style of road racing, I have to say. There were pretty much constant attacks, especially on the climbs, but the only breakaways that got away were only 1-3 riders, and got reeled back in after a few miles. On one of the climbs I got into a group of 20 or so that had 10 seconds on the field after a harrowing descent, but we didn´t get organized fast enough and got caught 5 minutes later. There´s surprisingly little shouting in the group like there is in Belgium – you can miss a pull on the front and you´ll get head shakes and muttering but not the constant screaming and cursing. All Basque teams were speaking to each other in Basque though and I don´t know all the swear words in Spanish so maybe I just couldn´t understand what was going on.
With 3 climbs and about 15 miles left to go, there were some huge attacks from a few emaciated Basques that really look like you could break them in half with a twig. I was sitting too far back in the group because we had just poured through a narrow section through a town and got caught out in some of the corners. Riders were going backwards all around me and I kept riding around them but eventually I lost contact with the lead group. Lots of chasing ensued in a group of about 20 but we had really crummy organization – not like the insanely tight Belgian pacelines – and didn´t make any progress to getting back in. I finished with the second group about midway down the field. I´m told the race ended in a big sprint, with one of the Argentines winning.
After the race there was a huge stage set up in the town square where they did an insanely long prize ceremony, with podium girls and champagne and the whole show. Everyone who finished got 12 euros appearance money, plus there was pretty good prize money for the team and individual classifications. The promoter found me after the race, and invited me out to dinner with him and some of his buddies who work for Austral, the sporting gear makers. It was pretty late, but I didn´t really want to ride home at dusk, and he promised it would be a ´short meal, half an hour´ -- of course, that is Spanish for a three course, two hour dinner. Certainly worth it though, they were really fun and he knows the promoter of the big race in downtown Santander at the end of September. So despite my pretty mediocre result, I have an invitation to El Crtierium.
That´s all from Spain, hope you all are enjoying the summer and good luck on the road!
Elliot
Mitchell Trux
| Bien, bien!!! --- On Fri, 8/22/08, Holland, Elliot Jacob <Holland...@GSB.Stanford.EDU> wrote: |
From: Holland, Elliot Jacob <Holland...@GSB.Stanford.EDU> |
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