After pouring rain off and on all night race day dawned foggy and wet.  I’m very glad I went for my scenic walk yesterday as it doesn’t look good for the great views today.  The sheep didn’t mind the inclement weather, though, and meandered from a field on one side of the road to the other at their leisure.

The San Sebastián Classic is one of our favourite races and this will be the third time we’ve seen it.  The last one was two years ago and young Remco Evenepoel was the winner.

We’re at the exact same spot we were at three years ago, just around the bend from the summit of the Jaizkibel climb, and they’ve erected summit markers 

Some cars joined us during the morning and the occupants stood around under their umbrellas.  I eventually approached a few that were in front of us and asked when the race was expected to arrive.

None of them spoke english, italian or french, but one young lady had a phone and she understood enough to show me a time schedule – for the women’s race (which, to be honest, we don’t really care about).  Just a guess as to when the men will be by.

The first of the women arrived right at noon with a three-rider breakaway, the main peloton a minute or two behind, and small groups straggling along about half an hour back.  Most of our fellow spectators turned out to be giving out water bottles to the riders, and as soon as the last rider passed they all left.

More fans arrived throughout the afternoon and once again our pullout was full.  A few of them setup tables and had a meal while waiting, and it was really nice to see the fog dissipate and have some blue sky overhead.

It was quite funny – at 3:50 I got a nice clear shot of some of the police motos, then we watched as the fog blew in again and swept across the hill to envelope us once more.  Only thirteen minutes later a lone racer arrived – you could hardly see him approaching through the fog.

Alaphilippe passed by about 3 minutes later with a couple of teammates…

I was glad to be wearing my winter coat as it was so cold and windy – it must have been awful for the riders.

Not wanting to drive in the foggy darkness we opted to stay another night at the roadside.  Having no 4G or other reception we didn’t find out the winner until the next morning after we’d left – Nelson Powless of EF won – good for him!

After another very rainy and windy night we left on Sunday morning, backtracking a bit before skirting Pamplona where we turned west and on past Logrono to Burgos and a campground we’d been to before just south of the city.

The Camino is very big around here – even the highway is named for it.

We arrived in good time to the campground only to be told that we could only stay two nights, not three, but that’s ok.  They have a decent restaurant but the wi-if sucks.

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