Café-bar Polmar in Polop is how all bars should be; friendly, a mixed clientele, cold beer, whichever spirit or wine you can think of, good coffee and great tapas – not least of which is the tortilla verdura [vegetable].
It’s well worth the forced march up from Al’s to the village – and where our Day One and Two ramblings and pictures were put together.
The owner, Javi is a mountain bike man so knows his cycling as well as serving the best tortilla I’ve ever tasted.
Breakfast over, vamos!
* * *
Stage Three heads back into the hills; Ibi to Alicante over 188 kilometres, not as tough as Stage Two but with two third cat. climbs, the Puertos de Biar and Tibo – due to the geography of the stage we chose the latter.
It’s 714 metres high, 4.6 kilometres long with an average gradient of 5.8%.
We were there in plenty of time and the crowds weren’t big. Those that were there were well behaved – you don’t mess with Las Unidades de Intervención Policial (the National Police, or UIP).
They’re all tall, fit, tough-looking young men, implacable in sharp, black uniforms behind their shades – in the pecking order of multiple Spanish police organisations they are ‘the Boys.’
Then the motorbikes appear; more and more of them, police, routing, press, service, more police…
All driven with flourish at what would appear to be a much higher speed than is really necessary.
And then there are those bizarre twin front-wheeled jobs; Yamaha Nikens.
All part of the ritual of waiting on the race – how many Grand Tour stages have I seen? Dozens, maybe hundreds – but there’s still that buzz of anticipation which the bikes generate; green then yellow flags on the crash bars of the police motos as the race gets nearer with red flags meaning it’s imminent.
The last wave of photog bikes passes then it’s the two slow moving police motos…
First over the Puerto was Burgos-BH man Angel Madrazo, defending his mountains jersey with gusto – a big deal for a low budget pro continental team.
In his post-race interviews he wears big glasses and bears a sneaking resemblance to ‘Fearless Fly,’ however Martin reckons Angel is more of a ‘Chicken Little.’
The peloton wasn’t far behind with Bora and Movistar to the fore – Bora keen to keep it together for Sam Bennett and the Spanish team keeping ‘Bala’ up front for the technical decent.
Quintana and Roche were both ‘up there’ too, always wary of splits – you burn more watts riding up front, but a hell of a lot more if you have to chase like a demon to re-join and you can take less risks.
Deceuninck’s big strongman, ‘Tim the Tractor’ Declercq was on his radio, marshalling his troops for the drop off the Puerto to the coast and the finale for his fast man, Fabio Jakobsen.
On Stage Two we saw Sam Bennett way off the back, looking like death and today he was going ‘deep’ to stay in the big group but in true top sprinter fashion when he saw that red kite, the lactic dissolved and he was in a class of his own to take the stage with aplomb.
It perhaps wasn’t a surprise to see the Groupama F de J guys off the back, the team has few expectations here.
But Ineos Dutch Monument winner, Wout Poels isn’t a man you’d expect to see bringing up the rear.
Argentinean Champion, Max Richeze was back there too, he would get back up to do his job for Jakobsen and take sixth on the stage himself when the Dutch Champion’s finale went awry.
Another big Deceuninck power house Remi Cavagna is off the back too; Fabio Jakobsen will need his services in the finale – but the big chap will get back on during the long drop to the finish.
After the finish their Het Nieuwsblad winner team mate, Zdenek Stybar had this to say of Jakobsen’s defeat by Sam Bennett;
“The third stage was one for the fastest riders in the peloton.
“The leadout for Fabio Jakobsen went well until the last 200m.
“You win some, you lose some.
“Today we lose but there are more opportunities to come in the next weeks…”
Sam Bewley was another man working hard to get back; he has a job to do for Mitchelton Scott’s big sprinter, Luka Mezgec who would finish third on the day – he’s had good legs in recent months with stage wins in Poland and his native Slovenia Tours.
The groups of hurting men just keep coming, this one lead by Luxembourg’s Alex Kirsch; those beautiful, slippery Treks don’t make much difference at these speeds – it’s the amount of pain you can take which does that.
Former British Champion, Ian Stannard was again enjoying his own company but he’s another big man who’ll relish the drop off the Puerto.
Oliviera Troia (UAE & Italy) was last man over the top – he was one that didn’t get back, dropping 10:50 on the day.
His team mate, big hitting Colombian sprinter Fernando Gaviria was another who didn’t get back; despite his amigos Marcato and Henao coming back for him – 4:50 was the damage at the line thanks to Bora and Deceuninck turning on the gas to keep him at bay.
The Sunweb soigneurs were keen not to miss their pick up and it was time for us to head home and catch the finale om TV.
But not before I’d snapped Martin – just to prove we were up there…
