cycling and other stories
There’s a church at the bottom of the climb: the Basílica de Santa María la Real de Covadonga. As the riders skirted past it I felt sure that Carlton Kirby, Eurosport commentator extraordinaire, would make reference to it. That the riders might be wise to offer a prayer before the climb. That divine intervention might be handy. Instead, he fixated on the two massive bell-towers.
As he attacked in the final kilometre or so I carefully monitored his cadence. His legs were spinning quickly. Wasting no time, I instinctively clicked on Apple music, streamed La Bamba by Los Lobos, and had my suspicions confirmed. Yates’s legs were spinning at the exact RPM of that 1987 hit single.
While silky Polish climber Rafal Majka and Belgian Dylan Teuns eyed each other up for the race win Rodriguez spun up from behind, spun level, and then spun away off into the distance. For a guy who’s never won a bike race before, he sure seems to know how to win a bike race.
There are days when you watch bike racing on the TV and it looks like a bit of a jolly.Continue Reading
ragtime cyclist