The Tour, from inside on a motorcycle

ASOthe organizing company of the most important race in the world, invited ACE to do the second stage, between victory and Saint Sebastian, on one of the race bikes. The reason was to see the whole atmosphere in the Grand Depart for him Basque Countrywith thousands and thousands of people in the ditches and with hardly any meters of travel absent from the public for 208 kilometers, some of them with a light rain.

the biker was Romain Championan expert on three wheels (that’s how most are in the Tour de France) with a motorcycle sporting the number 23. At the start, in a crowded Vitoria, the race covered, in a neutralized section, all the best-known spots in the capital of Álava, with a Plaza of the White Virgin to burst. If the output in Bilbao It was spectacular, what those present in Gasteiz lived through and Donosti will not be left behind. A few days that the Basque Country had been waiting for years for a Tour that today will leave its territory behind with a good taste in the mouth. Ikurriñas, orange tide of the Euskatellaureate jerseys KASshirts of Athletic Club, Alavés, Real Sociedad, Eibar…rare was the person present on the road who did not carry something distinctive.

From early morning, with the passing of the publicity caravan, the public applauded cars, motorcycles (as in this case) without distinction… and, obviously, the true protagonists, the riders. Egan Bernal He said last Thursday, in the presentation, that the Basque fans were the best in the world, and surely all of them set the bar high. Their words were good. The Tour says goodbye to Spain and the Basque Country until further notice, but he leaves behind images for posterity.