The famous musical My Fair Lady contains the song The Rain in Spain, with lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, music by Frederick Loewe and the dulcet tones of singer Julie Andrews.
The most well-known line in the lyrics is: The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.”
Tell that to all the riders in this year’s Vuelta a Espana. To update the lyrics for greater accuracy, you’d have to say “the rain in Spain falls mainly in Catalonia. More specially in Barcelona on August 26th and 27th during the first two stages of the Spanish grand tour.
The rain wasn’t just falling. It was torrential, falling in sheets, coming down in buckets — and the riders went down all over the road. The opening team time trial was a disaster with numerous riders sliding out on the wet city roads that were already treacherous thanks to the usual combination of automotive oil and road grime.
The GC favorites wisely decided to play it safe and avoid race-ending crashes. Powerhouse favorites Jumbo-Visma, Ineos Grenadiers and Soudal-Quickstep all dialed it back. It was, to sum up, a shit-show.
To make matters even worse and extra dangerous, the Vuelta’s preference for late stage starts ensured that the dark storm clouds made visibility difficult at best. It was a time trial that needed high-beam bike lights. The scenario became almost comically unsafe as post-stage, riders rode their time trial bikes back to their hotels in the dark weaving through busy city traffic.
Not surprisingly, the riders were not pleased. Remco Evenepoel called it “super dangerous.” Social media lit up with dismay, criticism and finger-pointing. The Helta Skelta Vuelta, the grand tour you can’t control, was already going loco.
Things did not improve the next day — more rain in Spain in Catalonia and especially Barcelona. A rendition of My Fair Soggy Lady. The road stage was altered to take GC times at nine kilometers from the finish. Everyone was miserable; there was no joy in peloton-town. The top contenders for overall victory agreed to go slow. No pedals turned in anger, just pedals turned in a downpour.
The president of the riders union, Adam Hansen, had his hands full. And yet again, the endless debate about how and when to apply the Extreme Weather Protocol fired up. Nothing was solved, safety issues still confused, riders still feeling like water-logged pawns or circus animals.
In fairness to all parties, it ain’t easy to predict a fast-changing weather pattern and then make major route changes and adjust start times in a major city like Barcelona. It’s hard to make that call when weather can shift dramatically at the last possible moment. No matter what the decision, lots of people are going to be angry and disappointed.
How many stages have we seen where riders start in hot, sunny weather, then climb mountains in driving rain and freezing temps only to later finish in sunshine and Summer conditions? Happens all the time. Race organizers roll the dice and they get lucky or get burned.
What is clear is the Vuelta boss Javier Guillén had plenty of time and opportunity to move the start time up to avoid finishing in the dark on these wet, slippery roads. There’s really no excuse for that — it’s Race Planning 101. They knew from three different weather reports that rain was a fact and they also knew what time the sun goes down. This isn’t Extreme Weather Protocal, it’s Common Sense.
Apparently, Barcelona officials tried in vain to change the sensors and timers on the street lights to improve visibility but couldn’t pull off that technological fix in time. That kind of adjustment in a big city isn’t a last second flip of the switch.
Yes, we know it hadn’t rained in Barcelona in two months. But running a challgening team time trial late in the day on an urban course requires some contingency plans already in place. It’s sort of like what happened in this year’s Giro Italia, where they made the decision to basically drop all Covid protocols because they decided Covid wasn’t an issue anymore. It was and roughly a dozen riders tested positive and had to leave the race before the Vuelta belatedly re-established safey measures.
It’s a shame for the riders and all cycling fans. Barcelona is a stunning and unique city that would have been a wonderful Vuelta kick-off and showcase. Instead, the peloton can’t wait to get out of town and find a sunnier, dryer place to race.
Sadly, the rain in Spain fell mainly on Barcelona.
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