Day 09 // Barista's Breakfast

Words by Stuart Downie

Photos by Alex Duffill, Liz Seabrook, and Tomás Montes

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Normally, three coffees at once might seem a bit much. But it’s day nine – the finale (plus nine hours). Even for the riders who have finished, the body takes some time to adapt back to life off the bike, and so this kind of intake is allowed. For now.

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Our last day together in largely sunny San Sebastian. Rather than going to bed at a reasonable hour, we’re going to go all the way through to the other side and the 09:00 cut off. But before we sign off for another year, let’s see what’s happened since the day before.

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Returning TPR rider Andrew Brunton (004) arrives in the wee small hours, at 03:52, taking lucky 13th spot. We’ve not seen him since CP1, where he barrelled in and out, and we’re sure this same energy was present when he reached the finish. A little later, Zachary Smith (126) arrives at 05:16. Too early for anything to be happening, it’s the weekend after all, but not soon enough to be off the bike after more than a week on the road.

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Alvin Escajeda (003) arrives at 05:42. In the time that it takes him to luft his cap, get his brevet card stamped and open a finisher’s beer, Wojciech Nogalski (123) has arrived to join him.

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“What wave were you in?” Nogalski asks. Adjusting for their respective start times, it turns out he finishes ahead of Alvin, who already has another beer open: there are different kinds of winning.

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Alvin is met by his partner, Ginger Boyd, who has been following him as she makes a film about his experience at TPR. Sounds great, but it’s not so easy. Riders keep odd hours – going to bed at 8pm, rising at 1am. They descend mountains faster than you can hope to keep up, making them hard to catch sight of. And if you do catch them, it’s hard to translate what they go through during a ride like this: it spans profound singular (expansion and contraction) across a transcendental togetherness that we’ll all struggle to verbalise but soon see in one another’s eyes. Both in and completely out of touch.

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The day begins proper and Christian Romero (025) rolls in at 09:35 in 17th place. Bakeries are open now, queues forming outside coffee shops for early breakfast-goers. Riders coming in with 2,000km under the wheels want these things, but maybe first a shower and a sleep.

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Benoit Guillem (016) turns up at 10:10, 18th place, his family is waiting for him. It is an emotional reunion, one that you instinctively feel is private and profound. Clearly the experience will take some time to process. Jonas Weibach (065) arrives an hour later in 19th place. He has raced TCR twice before, and tells us with a wry smile that this is definitely harder. By noon, Gabriel Maldonado (045) has rounded out the top twenty, also wearing a smile if a slightly dazed one.

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Riders are coming at regular intervals now, a little run dropping regularly into San Seb like a well-designed Rube Goldberg machine. Stephen Kennedy (107) comes an hour after Gabriel, and an hour later we have Henning Sydow (054), then an hour later Will Ward (121). Will has a small welcoming party gathered. His wife Ruth, four-year-old daughter Olive, and parents are in attendance. He’s met with smiles and hugs and a family bag of crisps – a perfect end to an excellent ride. Will’s coach Samuel Thompson, a TPR veteran himself, puts it well: that he completed what he set out to do is very satisfying.

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The machine skips slightly: Samuel Weidtmann (104) arrives six minutes later. Then we’re back to our hour intervals, with Joost Klarenbeek (066) dropping in at 15:23 to take a seat on the sunny side of the street, met by his partner Grace and a bottle of Cacolac.

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With the afternoon shift over and the machine wound up, Lost Dot’s volunteers relocate the CP to a local taproom for the finisher’s party. This means the finish line is temporarily relocated. It’s Saturday night: the square outside is busy, and everyone is dressed for the occasion, in a manner of speaking.

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PARTY PEOPLE

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If your name’s not on the list, you don’t get in:

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David Kealhofer (031) at 19:28

Rasmus Bozyk (097) 20:01

Jean-Cristophe Huche (061) 20:45

Pierre Miramon at (93) 21:56

Florent De Boisvilliers (038) 22:08

Christian Bernhard (024) 22:20

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Even though they got the dress code just right, and a special edition finisher’s photo, quite a few of these guests opted to check out early to check into a hotel, get a hot shower, and to something to eat that’s not individually wrapped and/or devoid of fibre. The recovery starts as soon as you stop.

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AFTERS

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The party is over by midnight. Not the rager some might have hoped for, but fair enough given that most of its attendants had more than a few miles in the legs and a lot on the mind. Not that it would matter, most places close by 3am and the next finisher is not until some time after that when Wolfgang Dieterle (124) arrives at 04:28. Some time later, as the sun is starting to think of coming up, Mark Agar (069) arrives and inhales a bag of Haribo offered by Anil Bayir (005) whose race ended at the start of the week. Instead of going home, Anil gamely stayed and helped out at the finish.

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At 08:42, first woman Hélène Fromenty (052) arrives. She’s gotten the result she wanted, after righting a mid-race mistake, and has had a lot on her mind while she’s been at it. A solid ride – one to look for in the future.

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Hélène is followed by pair Adrien Déglise (131a) and Gilles Hauser (131b) at 08:54, minutes before the cut off time, taking the victory in the pairs category. Before dashing for a cross country train, it’s nice to see a friendship solidified by thousands of kilometres and many more metres of elevation. Here’s to the next one.

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Now it’s Sunday. A club ride is gathering at the end of the street in crisp, clean matching kit: quite a difference to the road-worn riders who have collected at the finish over the course of the past few days. Of course, there are riders still out on road, pedalling toward the finish, putting in a ride that these Sunday riders could barely fathom. Louis Moorehead (073),  Leyla Serbouti (042), Tom Probert (117), Kai Sikorski (113), Ronny Patzsch (101) and Anna Petters (007) all ride on in search of a finish. Out of GC, but certainly not out of consideration – bon courage.

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This really is a beautifully hard bike race. Regardless of the outcome you should be proud of their effort.

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