Cold, rain, 2,500 meters of accumulated unevenness with constant ups and downs. Comanche territory on a dog day. A premiere of the second edition of O Gran Camiño The most demanding for the runners, who fought against the elements and the very low temperatures, leaving images typical of another era: they beat their thighs to get warm, they moved their hands non-stop, their faces contorted… The snow worsened , and when the epic loomed, everything stopped. The cyclists got off the bike 20 km from the finish line and the judges decided to suspend the stage after a few minutes. The season debut of the flaming star of the race, Jonas Vingegaard, could not be more peculiar.
The snow welcomed the runners anything but hot, with a thermal sensation of less than 0º. During the team presentation, Ion Izagirre fell to the ground, practically standing still, due to a small oversight when he was heading to the starting area. Luckily, mere anecdote. The race started frantic, with numerous outposts that were suffocated by the peloton. And at the arrival of the first intermediate sprint, Vingegaard cleared up doubts about his intentions in Galicia: acceleration and the first 3″ bonus in pocket game.
The getaway was consolidated with more than 40 km completed and the presence of Gianni Moscon, Eric Fagundez, Joey Rosskopf, Alexander Konychev, Sebastian Schönberger, Francesco Gavazzi, Dean Harvey, Venceslau Fernandes and García Soriano. Their maximum difference stabilized slightly below 3 minutes, thanks to the combined work of Jumbo-Visma and Movistar at the head of the peloton throughout a day in which extreme precautions were taken due to the copious rain. In fact, the ascent to the Alto de Montán, last scoring port of the day, came to danger due to the snow.
Unfortunately, the uncertainty did not reach that point. On the approach to the port, snow began to fall and grew in intensity by the second. He even came to jell on the runners themselves as a snowplow tried to break through ahead. Some extreme conditions for which, after many minutes of uncertainty and suffering, the cyclists decided to stop about 20 km from the finish line. Among the vast majority there was consensus (they argued low visibility), except for a few last survivors of the escape (Moscon, Schönberger and Hernaiz) They pushed forward until they were ordered to stop. At that moment, paradoxes of fate, the sun began to rise, which had already shone previously on the finish line. Hopefully the rest of the career will be less confusing…