Where are the limits of cycling? The debate arises cyclically. It reappears when in a race it happens that the runners are planted, that the organizers choose to neutralize the stage or that the weather forces them to change the route for an alternative one. Can you compete on a bicycle under heavy snowfall? The cyclists, in the first stage of O Gran Camiño, led by Jonas Vingegaard, said no. They were planted.
There have been mythical stages dyed white and with the mercury below zero. Several of them in the Giro d'Italia, where the mountains go above 2,000 meters of altitude and that runs in spring. Like the controversy that dressed Nairo Quintana in pink in 2014 with the Stelvio as the protagonist. Or the one from 1988 with Hampsten destroying the general in the Gavia.
They were different times. This time, the cyclists landed with 18 km to go before the finish line in Sarria. They began to get into the cars. It had been more than 10 kilometers since snowflakes had not stopped falling on them. They held on but it seemed that the snow was not going to stop. For this reason, the bulk of the peloton said enough, that it was not feasible to continue despite the fact that a snowplow vehicle preceded them and cleared the road as best it could. And they all ran for cover.
They who endure everything (or almost) feared for their safety. There was still a port to go up, the Alto de Montan, and go down. The danger of descent was the worst. Not only because of the visibility or the wet road, but because with the cold and the low thermal sensation, the fingers become numb and lose sensitivity. The risk of falling was too much.
Vingegaard was even seen talking to the race director's car to explain the cyclists' position. The mess was obvious. And the judges had to agree with the protagonists, who had already stopped the race. The stage was neutralized. The time that the three escapees (Moscon, Gavazzi and Schönberger) had ahead of was not worth it. The three bonus seconds Vingegaard had gotten in Guntin's intermediate sprint. All to zero.
The cold at the exit from Lugo, where the second edition of O Gran Camiño started, did not portend such an outcome. In contention, the Danish Jonas Vingegaard, the Tour champion, who was making his debut in 2023. In July he will have to defend his great victory under the French heat of the Pyrenees and the Alps. What the leader of the Jumbo did not expect was such a tough premiere: it was raining, cold and snowing. So much so that the stage could not be finished.
