Cartagena, Spain. Sep 07

The "Policia Local" police car swoops along the residential street, flanked by "Guardia Civil" on their big BMW motorbikes, sirens whaling, next the lead car, "Director de Carrera" emblazoned in its windows, a loud hailer on the roof playing loud music interspersed by announcements to the spectators on the road side, then the 160 strong peletón, gears and tyres whirring and the loud banter amongst the riders, swooping along at close to the legal 50km/h speed limit, then the service cars, the ambulance, siren whaling, and last but not least the broom wagon; whilst the officials and photographers motorbikes whiz past the peleton at breakneck speed, horns blaring as they go. Suddenly the whole "convoy" swoops around the final roundabout of town and the peleton spreads out across the full width of the road forming echelons to combat the cross wind before settling down for the final ascent of the day, the (352m vertical) 9,1 km Alto de la Cuesta where the peleton strings out more and more before reaching the last 12% graded kilometre. Spectators shout through megaphones and run alongside their "favoritos". Gears start to clatter as the big rings are found and the rear changers clang from the 25 down to the 12 sprockets as the summit PM line (premio montaña) is crossed and they start to swoop down the following descent at 80km/h and more.

But hang on, this maybe Sunday 23 September, the final day of the Vuelta a España, BUT this wasn’t that final stage. This was a "marcha" or Ciclo-sportive SPANISH STYLE, and I was right there in that peleton. Scary, fantastic and exhilerating are the only ways I can describe it. It was the first time in almost 20 years I’ve had a number on my bum and it was one of the best cycling experiences I’ve ever had. The only thing that spoilt it was the approach to the finish: it started to pelt down with rain making the previously dry road like a skating rink so instead of a spectacular swoop around the Plaza de España of Cartagena and then a final charge down the 1500m to the finish, those of us on slick tyres (including me) had to worry more about staying upright avoiding the risk of a pile of splintered carbon fibre in the middle of the road. However the META or finish was reached safely where we all received our plaques and our "I've done it" T-shirts etc.

The event itself was all part of the annual ROMANS AND CARTHEGENIANS FIESTA (Cartagena was where many battles between the two took place and at some time Hannibal and his elephants turned up to join in).

It was run over 108 km which we covered in 4h: 7mins (26,3 kmh) on mainly closed roads using the rolling closure technique of which the Spanish police are absolute experts. (Not that fast but bearing in mind the terrain, it wasn’t bad). Just on some sections, mainly the climbs, was traffic allowed to pass in the opposite direction but no traffic was allowed to pass in the same direction as us. Otherwise, the roads were totally closed, all traffic lights were "green" and it was awesome to ride along roads just totally full from gutter to gutter, with bobbing helmets.

There were two major ascents both of which start gradually and steepen towards the summits, the first around 15km long and the second being just over 9 km. Both are 3rd cat. status. The event even went through our village of Perin where folk turned out to watch. But it was the same through all the villages where people, hearing the police sirens would come out shouting "vamos, venga" , a sort of "dig-in" or "allez-allez" equivalent. The atmosphere was great and I really look forward to doing another soon.