Under heavy snowfall, cyclists force the first stage of O Gran Camiño to be suspended

Under the snowfall, almost, Jonas Vingegaard goes up to his mouth, protecting his sensitive chin, the colored panty that protects his neck, adjusts his sunglasses and pedals.

He puts his gloved hand on the handlebars and starts the computer on his bike.

The season begins, the path to the Tour of the last winner in Paris, a 26-year-old Dane who, above all, asks for calm, and does not want to be overwhelmed.

He is the anti-Pogacar, the calm cyclist.

“It will be a tough race.

And cold.

Let's see how it goes”, says the Dane, before leaving, the hairs of a minimal mustache bristling on his lips, who has chosen O Gran Camiño to start the season because his toughness and his time trial will come in handy to fully reach the Paris-Nice, in 10 days, where Tadej Pogacar awaits him, his second on the Tour, the Slovenian who shows off wherever he goes.

“I would love to exhibit myself here, but if I don't get it I'm not going to stress.

I know what I'm capable of when I'm well."

Zero degrees in Lugo, on its Roman wall.

Not much more heat five hours later, and snow falling in thick flakes on the last pass, the Alto de Montán, 750 meters away, and a snowplow clearing the way for the peloton, and the television cameras enjoying themselves playing their games in the air that cover the peloton, and test the quality of the thermal properties of the cycling raincoats, the skill of the directors and mechanics who from the cars help the riders to change their soaked gloves, and the patience of those who they dress, which is not much.

Frozen snow on the glasses lenses.

Blind.

Everyone talks when the descent begins.

The Herrada brothers, Jesús and José, from Cofidis, lead the group.

The squad stops.

"We can't go on like this," Vingegaard explains to the president of the jury,

French Catherine Gastou.

On his first day of the race, the Dane became everyone's spokesperson, and before that he was combative in the race, and in the first flying finish he sprinted and took bonus 3s.

The effort is symbolic.

Once the stage has been cancelled, no time is valid, only the points from the mountains (blue jersey for Francesco Gavazzi) and those from the flying goals (Vingegaard, green jersey) and bonuses will count, which will be computed in the second stage.

On Friday, from Tui, the start of the Camiño de Pontevedra to Mount Trega, everyone starts from scratch, except Vingegaard, who will do so with -3 seconds, those of the bonus.

The effort is symbolic.

Once the stage has been cancelled, no time is valid, only the points from the mountains (blue jersey for Francesco Gavazzi) and those from the flying goals (Vingegaard, green jersey) and bonuses will count, which will be computed in the second stage.

On Friday, from Tui, the start of the Camiño de Pontevedra to Mount Trega, everyone starts from scratch, except Vingegaard, who will do so with -3 seconds, those of the bonus.

The effort is symbolic.

Once the stage has been cancelled, no time is valid, only the points from the mountains (blue jersey for Francesco Gavazzi) and those from the flying goals (Vingegaard, green jersey) and bonuses will count, which will be computed in the second stage.

On Friday, from Tui, the start of the Camiño de Pontevedra to Mount Trega, everyone starts from scratch, except Vingegaard, who will do so with -3 seconds, those of the bonus.

Stopped on the road, long yellow sleeves, black leggings, Vingegaard is talking to the president, who is listening from her car.

“With icy hands we have no sensitivity to operate the brakes.

It's better to stop."

Minutes later, the commissioners announce it.

The stage is suspended.

168 kilometers traveled, 20 to go.

Many riders, Vingegaard among them, get into their team cars.

Others continue pedaling to the finish line.

Suddenly, the sun rises again.

Stop snowing.

“It was a collective decision of the peloton”, says Frans Maassen, the director of the Jumbo, Vingegaard's team.

“All of our riders agreed.”

The director, Kiko Martínez, understands them, and laments the lability of time, one minute, sun, and illuminated borders O Cabo do Mundo, the great meander of the Miño in the Ribeira Sacra;

the next minute,

water, then snow.

“We could have provided a shortcut to avoid the bush, but five minutes earlier the sun was shining, and we didn't think it would be necessary,” he says.

The storm advances and stops in Sarria, where the finish line, and when the cyclists arrive by car to get on the buses, full heating, hot showers, it intensifies.

"You couldn't continue," says Xabier Muriel, director of Movistar, and shows some photos he took in the mountains, the white road through the snow.

“Besides, they couldn't see.

If they put on the glasses, the lenses froze, a layer of ice.

If they took them off, their eyes froze."

Cold-swept cyclists are helpless lads, so skinny, not an ounce of fat in winter covering their already toned muscles, so little all of a sudden, that they arouse pity, some ending up in ambulances, shivering from hypothermia, covered in metallic blankets that shine like the sun.

The Galicians on the sidewalks of Sarria, kick the sidewalk, ice cream, to warm up and tell the outsiders, don't think that this is normal, eh?, and, blowing on their hands, they enter the grocery store from the finish line, a portion and a Ribeiro, where they share tables with the race commissioners, gathered in the only fully welcoming place.

At least they have been able to see once, in their first step through the finish line, the squad of athletes defying the cold and bad mood.

An escape with Gianni Moscon in front.

The peloton launched for them in less than a minute.

The Great Way begins.

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