Barcelona

Today’s stage finished in downtown Barcelona. A really great city to see/visit. I think this will be on my list of places to visit (vacation) when I have time. But more specifically, today’s stage finished on a circuit that used a good part (two-thirds) of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic course. The Montjuic course to be exact. We also passed by some of the Olympic venues such as the Olympic pool, the stadium and a building used for gymnastics (I think).
Spain plays today (right now, as I type and watch it at the same time) in the European championships (soccer). Because of this, I’m pretty sure we started today’s stage at 10:15 for an estimated finish of 3:00. Enough time for everyone to see the bike race but more importantly to get to watch the Spain game on TV at 6:00. I’m sure cycling got second fiddle today because we normally finish about 5:00 so that people can watch it on TV (the last hour is live coverage). We even get watch the finish of races in our team caravan car which has a small TV in it. Everyone (who does not know our limited view) thinks that the team car is where it is at to get a good view. NOT all the time and you can rarely see the front of the pack. Unless you are about car 3 or better, forget watching much. Even with car number 1,2 or 3 you have a medical car and more importantly the commissar car in front. So car 3 in the caravan really means you are 5 cars behind the pack. I’d hate to be car 16 (16 teams here in this race). That would not allow you to see anything at all.
Time to relax since we finished early.

CClinton

Owner of Promechanics.com and long time professional race mechanic.