After corresponding with his oncologist back in France who told Colin that his most recent blood test wasn’t that bad we decided to go ahead on our planned road trip up north to see some of the Vuelta.
On the first day we made it a fair distance – past Toledo and on to the shores of a reservoir/lake. We were looking for a park-4-night place but ended up just pulling over on a very wide spot with a lovely view.
The second day’s travel was much shorter as we stopped in the hilltop village of Portillo – you could actually see Valladolid in the distance to the north.
We stayed at the park-4-night for two very rainy, stormy nights, emerging from the campervan during one break in the rain to walk to a local restaurant for lunch.
Along the way we noticed many gray gates that we could see weren’t made to keep people out, and realized after awhile that they were for the bulls.
Before leaving on the second morning I took a walk to a nearby viewpoint – there were wonderful views in all directions.
The trip to Valladolid was quick and easy – we knew exactly where we wanted to go and for once the GPS took us right there. It’s just to the south of the city in a large nature park with plenty of excellent places to spend a couple of nights, and most importantly it’s right on the Time Trial route for Tuesday’s Vuelta stage.
On the Sunday afternoon there was a huge group of motorcycles that rode past, accompanied by police – not sure what that was about but it was kind of impressive.
With Monday being the first rest day of the Vuelta we got to see many of the riders doing a re-con of the course. We were joined at our chosen spot by a couple of campervans from Belgium, one of whom had a Giro wolf and a Vuelta bull in his front window – also a moose from a race in Norway.
In addition on race day they put out a large teddy bear in Jumbo kit that they called ‘Wout van Aert’ – since he’s not riding in the Vuelta I guess he’s just hanging out enjoying the sun and watching.
As usual on race day more and more folks arrived to watch – we’re just before the 8 km to go marker and at the top of a very small hill.
Throughout the morning most of the racers did a lap or two of the course…
…as current world TT champion Remco was in the rainbow jersey.
I got a decent photo of Ganna approaching us with the photo-moto right behind him – he ended up winning the stage. If only he was on a different team I would be a huge cheerleader for him.
The crowds at our place got so big we even got our own police guards.
Remco flew by…
…and shortly after the current leader Sepp Kuss, who managed to keep his overall lead. Remco did make up a bit of time on his main GC rivals so it was a good day overall.
As per usual within a very short time almost everyone had left the site…
…and another quiet night was had.
Sally McKenzie's European Adventures 