Thursday 21 August 2014

34th Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian

Continued from A crime in San Sebastian

After lunch, we walked along the promenade, past the Miramar Palace, but couldn't stop. We saw placards with an arrow on it, and I kept saying, listen, they're coming this way. We quickened our pace and saw more and more people getting more and more excited. And I kept repeating, look, they're definitely coming this way, look at all the arrows and the crowd.

34th Clásica Ciclista San Sebastián
La Clásica
My fear was we might not make it to the finishing line in time and we'd end up not seeing neither the finish nor this part of the race. So, I stopped and confirmed it with some passers-by. They said, yes, they're here now, just around the corner; they'll be appearing any time now, they'll go around and yes, the finish is at the Boulevard.

We stopped. I fumbled my camera out. I'm not much of an action photographer, but there's good light, so I set it to speed priority, fixed it at 1/500s, and hoped for the best. In no time, the cops and team vehicles started appearing. I just snapped away, hoping that I'd get some decent shots at least.

34th Clásica Ciclista San Sebastián
The cops are here!
Before long, the leader at this stage, Andriy Grivko, whooshed past. These guys must have been going like, what, 40, 50 kmh? It was exciting to be there in the midst of the action, everything happening so fast. Grivko was just the hare, I guess. He eventually finished way back in 54th.

34th Clásica Ciclista San Sebastián
Andriy Grivko
A split second later, the peloton rushed by in a blur. At this stage, the eventual winners were still farther behind.

34th Clásica Ciclista San Sebastián
The Peloton
A few more sped by and we had to start trotting towards The Boulevard. Could we get there before this lot? 200 km is just like a practice run for these athletes...

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