Our area is very popular with bicyclists and motorcyclists. The countryside is beautiful. The roads are curvy, steep and not very busy. Every year they hold a world class bicycle race through Catalunya. It's similar to the Tour de France and all the top riders participate. This year the race went very near to where we live.
It's possible to look at a schedule on the internet to see where the riders will be throughout the race. Philip and I decided to drive over to Falset and position ourselves on a hill where we could watch them go by. We left early to avoid the road closures. On the way, there was a terrific (for around here) hailstorm just 45 minutes before the racers were due to arrive. I'm afraid a number of vineyards around Falset and Marça may have been severely damaged since we just had bud break. Fortunately, the ice melted before the racers arrived but the pavement was still wet and slick.
As usual with these events, there was a huge police presence. We must have counted at least 50 Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan national police) on motorcycles, several police cars, ambulances and a paddy-wagon. There was also a bunch of support and communication vehicles. It looked like they had at least two extra bicycles for each of the 107 racers.
By the time the race reached Falset, there were three pelotons. Philip (who is a bicycle racing aficionado) thought it was unusual that the race was so spread out. There were over 20 minutes between the first and last racers. Even though we were on a hill, they came by pretty quickly.
The raced finished in Barcelona today. The winner was Alejandro Valverde. He rides for Team Movistar which happens to be my Spanish telephone company. Valverde has won the Volta a Catalunya multiple times. For complete info on the race, please link to:
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