The first clue was a serious photographer and his assistants carrying lights on sticks covered in ProPhoto and Pocket Wizard stickers. Canon's finest and (strangely, I thought) a crate of Sigma lenses. All set up outside our residence of last year. We wandered by, one of us feigning disinterest and one of us exhibiting the real thing.
A little further along we came to the cycling teams car convoy and trucks. One of us diverted from the chosen path, one of us didn't. Once I caught her up we ambled on our way.
Our plan was down along the low road and back on the high. Alas, for reasons still not properly discussed the time taken was far longer than expected. The end result being that a stroll planned to be undertaken before the temperature got silly became a tad warm by the end.
Almost home and the aforementioned photographer and the young cyclists were all set and photos were being taken. Now, last year the photographer and his radio triggers didn't work and we gave up watching. In the end he sprayed his cyclist to make them "shine" for the camera. Today's photographer had all the gear and knew what he was doing so he had these poor chaps racing up and down the seafront working up a proper sweat and then passing between his lens, lights, reflectors and background hung so the sea was obscured. Why obscure the sea?
Just watching these poor chaps, all Belgians, I think, but English speakers, made me sweat profusely. The sprinters were off, turn sprint head down and "pop" photo taken but the rest were struggling to work up any sweat at all. Once they managed to look warm they turned, accelerated and had their photos taken, too.
It was so interesting in a "James May" kind of way. This afternoon on our way back from watching the boats land I had a yarn with the sponsor and team manager, very interesting but I'll save that for when there's not much else to say. I will say that one vehicle that Caja Rural didn't have but Eddy's chaps do was a "telenet" van. A bit like a mobile F1 pit wall box, analysing the cyclists performance in real time and able to offer advice immediately. The team planning man was well talkative about that! Not sure I would have been so I'll not mention it.
Anyway, back to this morning, and once I got tired of watching professional cyclists who looked like they should be in school and fed on proper food charging around on Merckx bikes I joined my wife in the sea for a swim.
Later on they rode past under our balcony and I confess that the effort they were making was enough to make me waddle to the fridge to pour another drop of cold refreshment.
They're here for a fortnight. The training planning man said that he .........................
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