The Tour cycling march wears yellow Bizkaia

2023-06-12 01:14:48

Seven hours and 195 kilometers after the start on the esplanade in San Mamés, Samuel Sánchez crosses the finish line of ‘L’Étape By Tour de France’ installed in Etxebarria Park. On his legs he has the freckles of the mud that the downpours that have fallen on the same route that the first stage of the Tour will have on July 1 have marked him. In this march they have been accompanied by almost two thousand cyclists. For one day, everyone has felt inside the Tour. Part of him. There are still more than two weeks left for the official starting signal, but the Grande Boucle is already here. His apostles, dressed in yellow, announced it this Sunday in a pedal pilgrimage along the roads of Bizkaia.

“The octopus has fallen on us,” says Samuel, Olympic champion and ambassador of this cycling event. The potentiometer screen shows an average speed of 30 kilometers per hour (there were several stops to compact the huge line of participants). «The Tour cyclists will go at 42 kilometers per hour. Those who have been in this march are going to hallucinate when they see the professionals go by at full speed on the same slopes, “says the Asturian runner trained at the Euskadi Foundation of Miguel Madariaga, his sports father.

He likes the route, without a flat meter. “Here it is impossible to design a flat stage”, he emphasizes. TRUE. “I have almost 3,400 meters of accumulated unevenness,” he recounts. Without large ports, the route that will open the 2023 Tour is a slide that files the legs. Christian Prudhomme, director of the Tour, says that the French round is a “national monument” that France shares with the world. Euskadi, after a long wait -San Sebastián was the Grand Start in 1992- is now its turn, from July 1 to 3 with three stages: Bilbao-Bilbao, Vitoria-San Sebastián and Amorebieta-Baiona. The Biscayan capital will be the start of the gala round and this Sunday was the start of the Tour cycling event. A party.

At 8:00 in the morning, a yellow tide of two thousand bicycles leaves from San Mamés while, next to it, a group of ertzainas demonstrates and whistles. Cyclists cross for six minutes under the banner after the ribbon cutting by the city’s mayor, Juan María Aburto, accompanied by councilors Amaia Arregi and Xabier Ochandiano.

‘L’Étape By Tour de France’ is a prize for all those registered, coming from eleven countries. For one day, cyclists can feel like they are Tour runners. They furrow the neutralized section through the streets of the city. In Alameda Rekalde the road is soaked. “They have irrigated the field, good,” joked one participant. The bikes start to get dirty. It is the announcement of what is to come. The caravan heads up the climb to Enekuri. Bilbao in sight. It is as if the houses had rolled down the slope until they came together on the banks of the estuary. From one of those streets was Juanto Uribarri, creator of ‘altimetrias.net’, the guide for so many cyclists. That echo remains. He passed away a few days ago enjoying his passion: the bicycle. The Stage misses him.

Pike Bidea, the lace

The rhythm grows. “There’s something about this bike, it slows me down on the climb,” comments a cyclist while he winks. “Smooth, smooth, that there is already ground to run,” advises another. TRUE. At a contained pace he climbs towards Lauro and then Unbe from Laukiniz. The car that opens the test slows down for the regrouping to take place. The Stage of the Tour goes down to the Lamiako dock, crosses next to the Suspension Bridge and heads towards the restless coast. Up and down.

Time doesn’t cooperate. He warns with a few drops what later, already on the postcard of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe and in Bermeo, becomes a sudden deluge. Relief for embarrassment and danger to the stability of cyclists. There are several slips. wounds. The Stage of the Tour is a wave of mountains framed by the best Biscayan pictures, Urdaibai, Laga, Laida… Back in Bilbao, the groups are reduced. Each one with their forces for Morga and the Nursery. The lace waits in Pike Bidea, two violent kilometers where someone sets foot on the ground. An English cyclist asks in his language what Pike is like. The cyclists around him look at each other. No one knows how to say ‘very steep’ in English. The most agile mind uses the hand and puts it upright. Understood.

The finish line awaits after jumping the last fence, the ascent from the Bilbao City Hall to the Etxebarria Park. Many enter hand in hand. Others make the victory gesture. everyone wins. Who will win on July 1? “Van Aert”, most agree. “We will go to Pike to see the passage of the Tour,” announces a group from Sopela that has climbed the yellow podium to take a picture. They want a memory of when for a day they were part of the Tour de France.

The protagonists

«Pike Bidea has killed us, it is the hardest thing we have done»

Ander Bustos, Juan Ivorra, Teo González and Aritz Zarandona. They are from Barakaldo, Getxo and Meñaka and they knew the route perfectly, except for the Pike Bidea climb. “He has killed us, it is the hardest thing we have ever done,” they acknowledged. Therefore, they have no doubt that “those on the Tour are going to suffer a lot in Pike, in Vivero, Morga and San Pelayo, but they are going to fall in love with the views.”

“Despite the suffering, I have enjoyed a lot”

Rubén Gaudes, a native of Teruel, does not miss any of the races that are held in this area, since his partner lives in Bilbao. «I had her on file for a long time, it is a unique opportunity to do the same stage that the professionals do. Despite the suffering, I really enjoyed it, everything was perfect,” he commented.

“There are some spectacular landscapes and the atmosphere is very good”

Alonso Decia, Lucía Alfonso, Carlos García, Claudio Frecha and Juan Urrego come from Colombia, Argentina and Venezuela, and live in Bizkaia. How did they meet? Thanks to cycling. “Passion and the road brought us together,” they comment. Therefore, they could not miss this test. “We had to do it. There are some spectacular landscapes and the atmosphere has been very good ».

“I was in Malaga but I couldn’t miss the opportunity”

People from all over the world participated in L’Etape. A good example of this is Dmitri Soptsenko, an Estonian who was enjoying his holidays in Malaga and did not hesitate to travel to Bilbao. «It was a great opportunity to get to know the city and its surroundings by bike. I loved it because it is all surrounded by nature: mountains, sea… », he declared with satisfaction.