The anger on Saturday, for having to run the time trial under heavy rain –unpredictable– and the last teams, those of the favourites, practically at night and without lighting –lack of reaction with the schedule and the loss of light– still bothers them. lasted the cyclists on Sunday. So much so that the peloton, led by Jonas Vingegaard, raised their voices, raised their complaints and managed to cut off the end of yesterday's day and remove the sauce from the ascent to the castle and subsequent descent to Montjuïc, leaving the fans, for the second consecutive day , orphans. The double champion of the Tour used his cachet and his weight to put pressure on the Vuelta with the argument of preserving the safety of the cyclists. There is nothing worse than having the stars angry with the organization. That heated atmosphere caused another disappointment.
Neither the first stage was spectacular as wanted, a postcard to sell to the world (and to attract the attention of the Tour), nor was the second day of battle and emotion as sought. A total blackout for Barcelona, to which his interests turned out completely backwards. Far from shining as it was intended, the race was overshadowed and obscured.
Evenepoel was the most angry on Saturday about the lack of visibility in the team time trial. He even shamed the organization for not having the opinion of the cyclists, accusing them of treating them like "monkeys in a circus." But he was not the only one. “I just don't understand the reason for that schedule. I didn't see the sewers or potholes”, lamented Juan Ayuso, the great promise of the UAE and Spanish cycling.
The City Council argued that the city's lighting system cannot be improvised. "We are responsible for everything," assumed Javier Guillén, director of the Tour of Spain. “But a night stage was not done, but in nocturnal conditions. We all know what time it gets dark in Barcelona but that overcasting surprised us, ”he reasoned.
Without sun and without a fight, because the summer downpour on Saturday that upset all the plans turned into a full-fledged storm at the exit of Mataró. That increased the rebellion of the platoon. The runners, outraged by the chaos that had occurred the day before, threatened to go on a sit-down strike, to stand down. The organization had accepted and communicated that it applied the protocol for extreme weather and that it will neutralize the last 3.6 kilometers, which are downhill from the top of Montjuïc Castle to the finish line, in front of the Lluís Companys stadium. But that did not seem enough to the cyclists, who pulled their strings. In particular, Vingegaard was the one who took the lead since in his team they were afraid that a fall would ruin the aspirations of the Dane and Roglic to win the Vuelta and do the triplet. “This would not change anything compared to yesterday. The finish towards the Montjuïc finish line is going to be chaos full of curves and slippery terrain. The impression they give is that they are not concerned about our safety”, wielded one of the Jumbo leaders, who even got on the Movistar bus to talk with Enric Mas.
“At 3.6 km we would have fixed little. I think there was no one against it, ”explained the Spaniard. "It would have been a skating rink," compared Juan Ayuso. Although the negotiations recalled the sit-in of the cyclists in the 1999 Tour, also in Montjuïc, also due to the rain.
In the end, they ripped off the commitment of the jury commissioners to take the times at the -9 km sign, on Avenida Maria Cristina, before the climb. But the bonuses were maintained when crowning the port (6, 4 and 2 seconds) and at the finish line of the Estadi (10, 6 and 4s). “The moment of the Vuelta in which we find ourselves (second stage) was valued. There is a long Vuelta ahead. The consensus was that, with some agreeing more and others less, but we have all accepted”, corroborated Guillén, director of the race, with a point of understanding and another of impotence.
The victim and harmed was the public that waited in Montjuïc. What fun is it to see cracks like Evenepoel, Vingegaard and Roglic, who fell on a roundabout in Pallejà, go by off the hook, relaxed and carefree? Are they world stars or Sunday globetrotters? At times, the climb to the castle resembled a bicycle tour. Barely twenty riders took the stage victory seriously, among them the Belgian Kron, the winner, who took advantage of the fact that, after going through the 9 km banner, all the Jumbo jerseys disappeared from the head of the peloton , from Soudal and from the UAE, who got carried away, even came chatting.
"It tastes bad to me because we left home and I was very excited," reflected Marc Soler, a native of Vilanova, an important man in the UAE team, who was hurt by the disappointment of the first two stages of this Tour of Spain that leaves Barcelona between controversy.
