Surviving the spring storm sampler

Timmy reports on the madness in Murcia.

What a strange day! We woke up, looked out the window, saw some non-threatening clouds and headed to the start anticipating the massive climb on today’s menu. Then, as we left the hotel parking lot and turned the corner, it started pouring rain and blowing. Close the eyes, plug in the iPod, and hope it was clear at the start. At the start the first thing I saw was a poor guy struggling with his umbrella that had been turned inside out by the wind. Yep, not much better.

Because of the inclement weather, the stage was shortened and flattened to avoid the day’s big mountain. No problem. We started the race with some grey skies, wind and wet roads…but at least there was no falling water. It can start raining anytime as long as you don’t have to actually start in the rain. And so that’s what it did.

About five kilometers into the race, it started pouring again. And blowing. And then hailing. Sweet! This was like a spring storm sampler. Every single sort of terrible weather conditions every ten minute doses. Then it dried out for a bit, just in time for the narrow road/crosswind combo section.

We diced it out there a while, then came out on a big road with nothing but a stop-you-in-your-tracks headwind. The riders and organization strangely decided to neutralize the race. It was strange because it really wasn’t that bad or dangerous. Yesterday’s wind was far more sketchy.

The cool thing about bike racing is that it is very rarely ever canceled or even modified due to weather conditions. We just race through it and it becomes another factor to deal with. Imagine golfers having to keep playing with rain and wind blowing their balls away! Wouldn’t that be more exciting?

So we rode along at a snail’s pace sheltered by race vehicles, under the instructions that with three kilometers to go, the race would start again. Of course, the wind slowed and it became suddenly dry. And it felt really weird to be rolling along neutralized. Near the end, at about ten kilometers to go, we started “neutrally” racing to the three kilometer mark. At that point, the skies opened up again along with the wind, and we sprinted through town to the finish with Julian slipping and sliding into 3rd.

I’m sure the guys who raced the insane weather in California or Le Samyn in Belgium will laugh at the pictures of our neutral race and only slightly inclement weather! I mean, it was rough, but not that rough.

Surely tomorrow’s time trial will bless us with a strong tailwind!

Thanks for checking in – Timmy

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 5th, 2009 at 2:47 pm and is filed under Features, Garmin Web Site, Home Page, Pearl Izumi Web site and tagged with Julian Dean, Murcia, Timmy Duggan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.