Day 8 // Beyond Both Stormy Capes

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Words by Stuart Downie

Photos by Liz Seabrook, Jordi Rulló and Tomás Montes

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We’re back in Girona at Eat Sleep Cycle for the non-stop pre-party, expanding and contracting day and night, as more and more riders start to return from whence they came. How do you find words for a journey like this, once it’s done and behind you? More tired than you’ve maybe ever been, after a week of the highest highs and lowest lows, perhaps in ways that are yet inexplicable even to yourself. But we’re here together, having shared that journey, unique but also ordinary in our weird ways.

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So much of the rub in the world now is this idea of insurmountable difference, the breakdown of commonality and community, an uncrossable divide in understanding. You might believe, having done this, that you’re different from everyone else – the course encapsulates it: the two coasts, the two sides of the Pyrenees. Here are four ways you could perceive difference. But the more I see it, the less I believe it. Difference is inevitable, but we have to try. We have to be open to the experience. Friction is unavoidable, but there are salves.

Speaking of salves, Michael Drummond (049) looks like he’s been grating cream cheese with his saddle. He says it was the only way to ease the blistering heat he was experiencing down there. Say less: as I already said, some friction is inevitable; it’s how we cope with it. That’s not to say that lathering yourself in chamois cream is the answer, but it’s one way to get yourself across the line. Different strokes for different folks.

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Quietly Take to the Ship

We’ve been encamped at the finish line for the last two days. The race out there is an itch that won’t scratch – it’s hard not to be in the mountains with the riders, still on their way back. Last Friday I spoke with French pair Sophie Balmary (151a) and François Meurillon (151b) who live nearby in Toulouse. Not just a pair at the race – they’re married with two kids, eleven and seventeen – they’ve ridden in the Pyrenees before; they came here for the adventure. That adventure is still going a week later as they make their way back to Girona along the Raid Parcours. Sophie and François met as rowers on the French national team – Sophie competed at three Olympic Games, so there’s no doubt they’ve got grit, and rowers make good cyclists. With the finishers’ party tomorrow, I may not see them, but they’re out there making their way, having another adventure together.

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Jana Kesenheimer (002) has returned to work, and her colleagues are none the wiser as to her recent ‘vacation’. Before she started, she told me that her last experience at TPR merited the tagline: a beautifully hard bike race. Jana will keep talking about it as the most beautiful bike race, feeling immensely satisfied with the experience. Out of this annual leave, Jana found everything she wanted. A long, solo ride, a more intense race, and a more dirtbag experience, sleeping outside three times. Not to mention lots of photos of horses, and more great memories – one of her highlights, she says, was seeing us at the end of the Raid Parcours. As it happens, it’s also one of race photographer Tomas Montes’ favourite moments, and we’re glad to have been able to share in the magic of the moment (yes, that’s a Scorpions reference – bringing it a little forward from the previous 19th-century German Romanticism).

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How Glad and How Grateful the Relief

Julien Bourbiaux (063) has returned, to rapturous applause. Good legs but a slightly sore neck, Julien has made good on his resolution to return and finish what he started at TPRNo2. It’s perfect, he says, of the route and the experience, having taken what he can from the past to move on positively – looking forward, even if he can’t quite look up.

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Tanja Hacker (060) has lost 18 hours to a front wheel broken by a passage Canadien. In Canada, these passages are called Texas gates; in the UK, it’s a cattle grid. Whatever the obstacle might be called, or how it presents itself, Tanja’s managed to overcome it. Continuing along the Raid, it looks like she’ll make the finish in time for the party – perhaps the best way to finish is turning up during the party to a hero’s welcome.

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Regular Lost Dot media team member Sam Saskia Dugon (011) set out to be kinder to herself after a tough time at TPRNo5. A compounded mechanical problem saw her race over yesterday. Later she told me that she’d been looking for a reason to stop, not quite able to call it on feeling alone. My feeling is that although Sam wanted to scratch, it’s possible she wasn’t quite ready to do it – wanting to do something and actually doing it are quite different. Just ask any of the riders who made it to the start line and out into the Pyrenees.

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The Universe is Finished, the Copestone is On

In the evening we welcome the winner of our pairs category, Jorgen Mellem (152a) and Henrik Fiskådal (152b). The pair admit it might have been their stubbornness that propelled them through (their ivory leg?), although it seems there’s some disagreement as to who’s the most stubborn. At home in the wetter weather (another ivory leg?), they made good time in the final days, and before the words “would you like a beer” had fully left the lips of finish line volunteer Els Cook, there was a resounding YES. Perhaps the real white whale was the friends we made along the way.

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Race Reporter Maya Noriega spoke with Josep “Pep” Maria Cabanas Coma (077) at the finish. My Spanish is even worse than my French, which means speaking with Pep is something I’ve missed doing –  he tells Maya that this race is special. There’s nothing like it. It pushes you to your limits and takes you out of your comfort zone. All the time up and down, not just on the road but in your emotions. High highs, low lows. Pep is happy to finish, and now he’s enjoying a well-earned beer. His highlight this year was seeing the Bay of Biscay at the turnaround. Like everyone, he struggled with the heat on the way out but really enjoyed the way back. His approach: sleep out every night – it saves time over checking in and out of hotels.

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TCR veteran Alain Rumpf (106) is no stranger to the mountains, but he is totally unfamiliar with these mountains. He guides tours in the Alps, so he has the legs for it, but it’s still tough going. What a way to tick off the list – doing all the big ones in one go. After TCR, he was asked if he’d ever ride it again, and he said yes, but his wife – pregnant at the time with their son – was not so sure, having watched his dot closely. They compromised: when their son was 18, they’d ride it as a pair. See you at TCRNo18, Alain?

My Whole Clock’s Run Down

Only two more scratches since yesterday: Benjamin Bell (041) and Daniel Steinbach (123), caught out by the sand in the hourglass. Unlike the race winner, I’m no mathematician, but TPR seems on for a hearty finish rate this year – perhaps this is the leviathan edition?

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