The Wait

There’s something magical about going to see a professional cycling grand tour stage. You can feel the greatness of the paddock and the teams trucks. Admire the most wanted bikes. You will really hear the pain of the riders suffering on that steep corner you chose, just a few centimeters away from you. You will be able to cheer until you have no voice. Take some pictures, record some moments…

Obviously you wont see all the details that any grand tour like “La Vuelta” can offer through the TV, but undoubtedly you will feel the race, and there’s no technology to replace that.

But first… you will have to wait. And this is what we’ve done during the last mountain stage of this 2018 La Vuelta grand tour. WAIT.

So we picked up our bikes, and got to Andorra. This small country have so much to offer for cycling passionates, but there’s one thing you won’t find here…flat road sections. And that sounds great!

But before exploring the route and decide the hot point to see the riders go by, we need some caffeine. And fortunately there’s a new place in Andorra where you’ll find good specialty coffee and bike friendly environment. That’s Odei Cafe!

Walking through the paddok, where all the teams exhibit the latest materials, and infrastructures, it’s great, but frustrating specially for those who cycling gear has become their metadone.

And then…the race begun

So we made a first stop just a couple kms from the start line right at the beginning of the first of the 6 climbs for today’s stage.

But our goal was to find the most critical point of this HC final climb called “La Gallina”. That’s an impressive and steep climb with 5 consecutive kms over 9% average, where the riders fighting for the stage or the general classification will give it all, and that’s what we came here for. To feel that moment.

You can test the climb just before the professionals, and feel in your legs how difficult it is. This is something really special, not many sports give you the opportunity to feel so close the action

An then… they arrive! All the people come together drawing a corridor and start shouting to encourage those riders in an exhausting final kilometer. It’s just a blink, and they are gone, but believe us, the wait it’s worth it.