French legend de Muer dies at 90

The legendary French cyclist and manager Maurice de Muer has died at the age of 90, according to reports.

De Muer won Paris-Camembert in 1944 and came second at the second edition of Paris-Nice ever held in 1946. His career, during which he remained with Dunlop-Peugeot, extended between 1943 and 1951 and he rode with some of the greatest names in cycling including the Swiss Ferdy Kübler - the oldest surviving Tour de France winner at 92.

After retiring from competition, de Muer moved into team management and worked as a directeur sportif for Bic, Pelforth and Peugeot; training Tour winners Luis Ocana and Bernard Thevenet in his new role.

He had been living in a retirement home since September 2011 when his house was destroyed by fire.

Maurice de Muer, born Potigny, France on the 4th of October 1921; died on the 5th of March 2012.

Tour of Beijing - Stage 4 Guide

Mutianyu (public domain image)

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The penultimate stage of this first ever Tour of Beijing is also the longest, covering 189.5km through the towns and countryside to the north of Beijing and makes two visits to the Great Wall - during the first, the riders will pass through the Wall at Huanghuacheng, where two stretches are joined by a dam; and at the second they'll leave the main route to complete a short circuit up to Mutianyu and back - the best-preserved, best-built and most spectacular of the several sections of defences forming the Wall as a whole. It ends at the Shunyi Rowing-Canoeing Centre with its several kilometres of lakes, rivers and white-water courses purpose-built for the Olympics.

The Guyaju Ruins in Yanqing County were once occupied
by the Kumo Xi, a tribe of fierce Mongolian warriors
(© pfctdayelise CC2.5)

The neutral zone begins at the Gui Chuan Square in Yanqing, capital town of Yanqing County - the exact route is, once again, not terribly clear from details in the roadbook. Having left the Square, the peloton travels east for a while along the Hubei Road before crossing the river and joining Binhe Road heading west at some unspecified point, we think most likely the Yongxi Highway crossing. Directions for the first 17km remain unclear - one road, the G101, doesn't seem to exist and is presumably a misprint for the G110. This, says the itinerary, should be followed until the beginning of a 1km section on Hubei Road again; but this appears to bear little correlation to either the road layout or what is shown on the official map. Since we need to get to Hunan Road, we think the most likely route would be to continue on Binhe Road as it crosses the G110, arriving at the S216 just over 0.5km later - the two roads are also known as the Jingyin and Old Jingyin Roads, making entirely feasible the idea of a route planner becoming confused. Turning right and then left 400m later brings the race onto Hunan East Road, with the stage's first intermediate sprint beginning some 500m later (40°27'15.67"N 115°59'33.15"E).

2km ahead, the route reaches what the roadbook states to be Yanqing Road but maps state is Yankang Road, turning left and then right at the next junction for Huanhu Road. We're now directed to find Kang Hang Road - trouble is, the road registered under that name is in Singapore - as we need to get to the S217, we assume the correct road is the one beginning at 40°26'58.84"N 115°57'34.54"E and ending at 40°26'33.87"N 115°52'42.83"E, where the peloton turn right towards another section of the G110 approximately 4km away followed by another unspecified route to find the X020 County Road (we think they'll turn left and travel west for a short way on the G110, then right and north on the X012 County Road and right again to continue east on the X020 - the official maps seem to support this). Somewhere along this road, with 51km covered since the end of the neutral zone, the second intermediate sprint begins. Towards the end of the road, we'll have excellent views of the mountains to the left, over 1000m high. Another not very clearly-pointed out section leads to the S232 road, apparently via the X026 - however, the X026 is a considerable distance away to the south in Beijing.

Mutianyu is 2.25km long and has 22 watchtowers. Whereas
other sections are built of bricks, earth and whatever was
available, here the structure is granite.
(© Fabian Dany CC2.5)

We then follow the S232 east, reaching the feed zone 97.5km from the start. Riders will want to take on board a decent amount of energy gels - attentive readers will have spotted the lack of climbs in the first half of this stage. The first, a Cat 3, starts 4.5km after the feed zone and, having already climbed for some distance, the riders will need to climb 132m in 2.5km to reach the top. The descent is long and fast.

We remain on the S232 as far as Sihaizhen where we turn right, right again and left to join Ansi Road, leading 20km to Huanghuachengcun (note that on the official Tour website, the village is misspelled Huang Hui Zhen). It's here that the race passes by the dam connecting two stretches of Great Wall. Since 2010, there have been numerous eyewitness reports made by people who claim to have seen a large, fiery object falling to Earth in the area on the night of October the 30th - this has, naturally, got UFO fans hot under to collar. Whatever the object was - indeed, if the object ever was - there have been no corresponding accounts of aircraft in trouble nor wreckage/craters on the mountainsides.

Now we join the X009, leading through Huanghuazhencun - the probable cause of the of the confusion a few kilometres previously). The second climb, 159m in 4km, is rated Cat 2 and begins 125km from the start - that category seems a little more than would be expected, suggesting that the road isn't of the best quality. It's also very twisty as it climbs and could potentially be dangerous if wet (or while being bombarded with mysterious fiery UFOs). The summit comes at the entrance to the Tuoling Tunnel (40°24'9.66"N 116°23'32.82"E) which, as tends to be the case with tunnels in rural China, is unlit - it's short, but the riders won't like it due to the hazard it presents.

Having emerged back into daylight, the race follows the road right and descends quickly through Sha Yu Village before arriving at Bohaizhen Bridge 3km later. The right turn onto it is tight, but the bridge is wide and of good quality so crashes are unlikely. Bohaizhen Town is around 1.6km ahead. The stage's final climb begins 3.5km later at a large roundabout (40°24'53.05"N 116°32'19.11"E) where the race turns left, entering the circuit up to Mutianyu (40°25'59.83"N 116°33'33.35"E) and back down again. It's remarkable that this section - which, as we mentioned earlier, is the best-preserved along the Wall's length - has survived so intact: in the years following the Cultural Revolution, the Maoist government declared the Wall to be a symbol of the nation's feudal past and encouraged the populace to help themselves to as much of the masonry as they could cart away, even demolishing some parts to assist them. Were it not for the craggy ridge followed by this section, its proximity to Beijing would almost certainly have ensured its destruction.

We at Cyclopunk do not believe in ghosts,
UFOs or any of that stuff. However, we
wouldn't hang around Mutianyu alone for
any length of time just in case.
(CC3.0)

As if the UFOs around the last section of wall weren't sufficient weirdness for one stage, this section is said to be haunted by the Mutianyu Phantom. A legend dating from just the late 1990s, the Phantom is said to be the ghost of a local woman killed by an explosion at the factory where she was employed making the trinkets still sold to tourists who visit the area. Her first victim was a German woman in 1997; her family reporting that the victim had mentioned seeing a woman dressed in black, with a black veil and white gloves, pointing at her several times throughout the day when they visited the Wall. Then, later in the day, the victim vanished and has  never been seen again. The next victim was another tourist named Benjamin Heffemburg - he too saw the mysterious woman in black, reporting his sightings to his family, and the next day was discovered dead in his hotel room - his body surrounded by shards of shattered glass. Several more disappearances have been blamed upon the Phantom, whom some locals now warn tourists to avoid at all costs. Since she only attacks foreigners, the locals are not afraid of her and as a result have been able to get close enough to have a better look (or have perhaps realised that there's nothing like a good ghost story to intrigue rich visitors), now explaining that her white gloves are in fact bandages and the veil hides a hideously deformed face.

The final intermediate sprint begins 13km after the summit, 167km into the race, then the peloton continue on the X009 as it becomes Huaisha Road and travels along the northern edge of Huairou Reservoir, arriving presently at a very large roundabout (40°20'7.79"N 116°37'28.62"E) where they'll turn right for Qingchun Road. Having followed it south to Nanhua Street, they turn left and follow the road around a bend to a wide bridge; taking the first left turn at the next roundabout for Huaichanglian Road and, after 1.73km, an interchange with a right turn onto Jingmi Road heading south - they'll follow this road for 13.27km through a number of further interchanges, rural areas and industrialised urban complexes until they reach the left-hand slip road leading down onto Baima Road (40°10'31.03"N 116°38'8.58"E), at which point they have 5km left.

Shunyi's entirely man-made white-water slalom course
is considered one of the most testing in the world
(© Gerry Boudens CC3.0)

Now traveling east, they soon cross Shun'an North Road with 3km left to go. The horse racing stadium passes by on the right, then Youdi Road and the Beijing Country Club golf course before the route crosses a wide bridge. The flamme rouge is on the bridge, marking the final kilometre, then the road bends very slightly right as we enter the final sprint - an last section for the sprint specialists up to the finish line by the plaza in front of the Shunyi Park (40°10'7.58"N 116°41'7.65"E).

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Tour of Britain - Stage 5 Guide

Exeter Cathedral (© Charles Miller CC2.0)

Stage Map: click here
Stage Profile: click here
More Stage Guides: click here

So which one's the Queen Stage this year? Yesterday's 184km trek through the Welsh mountains from one ancient castle to another, or today's 180km among some of the most challenging terrain in England from a Roman city to an age-old port? Whichever way you decide, you'll have to agree it's a close-run thing - both stages have everything necessary for a great cycle race: testing climbs, deadly descents and killer corners for a challenging parcours along with plenty to look at along the way. One thing's for certain - Britain might not have natural beauty on the scale that France, Spain and Italy have, but there's plenty of it in smaller portions and this race is undoubtedly among the greatest after the Grand Tours.

One fact about Stage 5 that's well worth knowing if you happen to live in the area - although the race itself loops far up into the Devon countryside to complete its full 180km, the start and finish lines in Exeter and Exmouth are only about 18.5km apart - that's 11.5 miles, a distance easily covered on a bike. Why not watch the start and then show your support for the riders and your appreciation of the bicycle itself by showing up at the finish line to welcome the winner with your own trusty steed by your side?

Like any successful city, Exeter recognises the need to
embrace the modern and that contemporary architecture
can be as beautiful as the ancient. The newly-built Court
complex is as fine a structure as the cathedral.
(© Derek Harper CC2.0)

Exeter has grown up in one of those locations that seems so ideally suited to human inhabitation that it could almost have been designed specifically to host a city. Centred around a hill on the eastern bank of a river both navigable and full of fish, it became an important trading post and supported a large and relatively wealthy population from ancient times - Greek coins discovered in the area show that there were trade routes between here and the Mediterranean at least two centuries before the Romans took control of England.

As we all know, the secret to Roman success was to make use and develop what they found in the lands they conquered, combining it with their own contributions to ensure local support and avoid having to start afresh as would be the case had they have ransacked and pillaged - this was very much the case here. More than a thousand Roman coins and an extensive baths complex have been discovered in the city and traces of the Roman walls remain, showing that they strengthened the trading routes and nurtured the old Celtic town into what would have been one of the most modern cities in Europe at the time. However, as tended to be the case throughout the country, Exeter entered a long period of decline during the Dark Ages when the nation became subject to rival kings and split into several warring states. There is no documentary mention of the city at all from the Romans' departure in the 5th Century right up until 680, a period of more that 250 years; however, the city didn't completely fall apart: the 680 documents records that St. Boniface - patron saint of Germany and the Netherlands and, according to some traditions, the inventor of the Christmas tree - was educated at an abbey in Exeter (in fact, he was born just 13km away at Crediton, site of a Catholic church that preserves a shrine to him.

If you like cathedrals - and whatever your opinions on Christianity and religion in general, you've got to admit that they're spectacular objects - the assembly point at the beginning of the neutral zone is going to be among your favourite spots anywhere along the 2011 parcours, because it's right in Cathedral Yard as depicted in our photograph of the church at the start of this guide (50°43'21.70"N 3°31'54.38"W). From here, the riders move out onto South Street, following it north for the short distance to a tight left turn onto the High Street - in fact, it's so tight with the widened footpath along the left side of the road that we may even see an early crash and pile-up here. The High Street becomes Fore Street which becomes New Bridge Street and joins the gyratory system based on the two wide bridges - the roadbook doesn't mention if both routes will be open, but the route to the right - against normal traffic flow - is considerably shorter. The road passes under the railway - not over, as Google Maps shows - and becomes Cowick Street, then changes again to Dunsford Road past the yellow box junction. The route turns right onto Tedburn Road at the bottom of Pocombe Hill, shortly before the A30 bridge and reaches the end of the neutral zone- where racing begins - by the nursery,  4.9km after setting off from the cathedral (50°43'14.47"N 3°34'48.44"W).

Tedburn St. Mary
(© Derek Harper CC2.0)

The road descends on Five Mile Hill just beyond the neutral zone and start of the race. However, though it's a long one it's not especially steep at any point, so won't generate massive speeds in the pack; which also means a gang of breakaway hopefuls might try to take advantage of it. The race reaches Pathfinder Village - a managed community for the retired - after 4.4km, taking the second exit at the roundabout 0.9km ahead towards Tedburn St. Mary.

Half a kilometre later, the peloton arrives at the first of a series of three roundabouts in 3.7km, taking the second exit at the first two and the third at the third. Note that the roadbook instructs riders to take the second exit at all three - however, this will lead onto the A30; whereas the third exit on the final roundabout leads into Cheriton Bishop and the start of the stage's first sprint beginning at the Mulberry Inn Pub (50°43'25.00"N 3°44'19.08"W).

House at Crockernwell (© TubeStudio CC3.0)

The riders arrive at Crockernwell after 14.4km, passing an extremely impressive stately home on the left. Having left Crockernwell, they follow the road for 6.09km; passing over the A30 and, after 20.1km from the start, arriving at an interchange and taking the exit for the A382 leading through Whiddon Down. The second exit at a small roundabout just beyond the village carries the race along the A382 and into Dartmoor National Park, one of Britain' most beautiful regions.

Almshouses, Moretonhampstead. Don't be fooled by the
stone carved with the date 1637 - dates on buildings often
refer to a momentous happening in the lives of past owners
or, as is the case here, to the date of a restoration or
refurbishment. In fact, research has revealed the Alms-
houses to be at least two centuries older.
(© Penny Maes CC2.0)

The following section most consists of straight, unchallenging stretches of road with the exception of a steep descent in woodland 2.61km from the Whiddon Down roundabout. With 31km covered since the start of the race, the riders reach Moretonhampstead, apparently the longest single-word place name in England. The town was granted a Royal Charter in 1207 by King John, an act that permitted it to exercise certain rights and to hold a weekly market and annual fair in return for paying the monarch a rent of... you'll like this... one sparrowhawk per year. The Domesday book records the local manor as having owned 5000 sheep; sheep having formed the basis of the local economy and bringing considerable wealth to the area prior to the industry's decline in the late 17th Century. However, Moretonhampstead's position left it ideally placed to act as a stopping point for travelers making what was in those times the difficult, dangerous journey over Dartmoor and thus it was able to survive in relative financial health, many of its fine ancient buildings surviving intact. Sadly, a number of them were destroyed in several fires during the 20th Century, but enough survives for the town to be very much worth visiting.

The A382 continues through the town, but there's a tricky section in the middle where a tight left leads to a crossroads 25m ahead at The Square, followed by a narrow passage - the several bus-stops nearby increasing the probability of spilled diesel on the road, making the initial corner even more potentially hazardous. In the rain, this section could be treacherous. Note the old tollhouse on the left just beyond the village where travelers would once have had to stop and pay to use the road - a method of funding road maintenance largely replaced in Britain by road tax except for a few sections such as bridges and tunnels operated by private concerns. The following 9.3km pass by wooded slopes, fine homes and some very, very beautiful countryside.

Sts. Peter, Paul and Thomas of Canterbury in
Bovey Tracey, built by the family of one of
men responsible for the latter saint's death
(© Derek Harper CC2.0)

Bovey Tracey comes after 40.8km. The name is a combination of the name of the river, often pronounced "buvvy" by locals, and that of the de Tracey family who became Norman lords of the manor following the Conquest. A descendant, William de Tracey, was one of the four knights who murdered Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1170. William was excommunicated and exiled for his crime (a non-aristocrat would have suffered a far worse fate) and began making his way to Jerusalem to pray for forgiveness - what happened to him next is not known for certain. Some stories stay that he died of leprosy in Italy in 1174, others that he reached Jerusalem and spent the rest of his life praying, lamenting and seeking atonement before death and burial there. A tomb at Mortehoe, not far from here near Woollacombe, bears an extremely damaged inscription translated by some as reading "Syree Williame de Trace-Il enat eeys-Meercy" which has led some to believe he went into hiding but remained in the area. This inscription has, however, been explained by historians going on probable dates suggested by the decorative carvings on the tomb to refer a 14th Century descendant. His family, in penance, rebuilt the church which was subsequently rededicated to Saints Peter, Paul and Thomas of Canterbury - it still stands in the town to this day. If you're visiting the area with children, repay them for their patience while you watched the bikes with a visit to the House of Marbles, a museum of the game where they can race marbles around various obstacles on long marble runs. Entrance is free and you may as well admit it - you want a go, too.

Those following the race on television won't see much of Bovey Tracey unfortunately, because the route takes the third exit at the roundabout on the western perimeter and heads off on the B3387 in the opposite direction and immediately begins the first of the stages climbs; Category 1 Haytor Rocks. The riders take the left path at a junction 0.59km after the roundabout and cross a cattle grid 2.6km later - note that since it lies under overhanging trees, the rungs may host algae and other slimy stuff, meaning that they'll be even more dangerous than most. Riders would be wise to stick if at all possible to the sections kept clear by car tyres and avoid the edges or middle. The highest point is 2.85km along straight roads with few bends, through Haytor village and bt a carpark l(50°34'37.84"N 3°45'12.92"W). Hay Tor itself, one of the many granite outcrops left exposed after surrounding softer rock eroded that characterise the area, can be seen rising up to the right of the road.

Hay Tor (© Smalljim CC3.0)

The drinks station is 1.9km after the top of the climb, coming 165m before a cattle grid - which, in our opinion, is a mad place to put it. Drink and feed stations are notorious blackspots for crashes in cycle racing as riders scoot back and forth from their team mates to the team officials, carrying large numbers of bidons on the way back. Each team has its own preference to whereabouts in the zone its particular station will be, but all the same placing it so close to such a hazardous feature as a cattle grid seems as inadvisable as it is easily avoidable to us.

1.1km after the cattle grid, just around a left bend, the road enters a very steep descent with a gradient of 20%, dropping 70m in 0.5km - those with the bravery to do so will get up to very high speeds here, so keep your eyes on Thor Hushovd of Garmin-Cervelo who hit incredible speeds on the descent into Lourdes during this year's Tour de France, enabling him to win the stage. Those who are not so comfortable on steep descents will be extremely cautious here.

St. Pancras, Widecombe - a woodcut depicting
the Great Thunderstorm of 1638

At the bottom of the hill, 150m lower, is Widecombe-in-the-Moor with a 14th Century church dedicated to St. Pancras and often called the Cathedral of the Moors on account of its grandeur. On a Sunday in 1638, the village was hit by what has become known as the Great Thunderstorm, during which the church suffered much damage due to what is now believed to have been ball lightning. According to eyewitness accounts, there were about 300 people attending a service when the storm struck, plunging the church into an eerie darkness. Suddenly, "a great ball of fire" smashed through a window and entered the building, bouncing around the interior and killing four of those whom it contacted while leaving others completely unharmed. A man named Robert Meade was thrown so hard against a pillar by the ball that it bears an indentation to this day; his skull was shattered and his brain dashed on the flagstones. Unsurprisingly, the phenomenon was attributed to the Devil, said variously to have come to take the souls of the four who had been apparently playing cards during the service or due to a local gambler named Jan Reynolds who had made an unholy pact to guarantee success at the card table, his side of the bargain being that his soul would become the Devil's possession should he ever fall asleep in church. This explanation was apparently confirmed when the landlady of the nearby Tavistock Inn claimed that her pub had been visited by a man riding a black horse the night before the storm. When he entered the pub to ask for directions, he was seen to have cloven hooves instead of human feet and when he drank his ale, it hissed as it went down his throat. He left coins on the bar in payment but, when the landlady tried to pick them up, they turned into dry leaves.

After passing straight through the oncoming crossroads and junction while climbing, the route enters another very steep descent at the 56.1km point. The steepest part comes at a crossroads shortly after a left-handed bend by farm buildings (50°33'19.24"N 3°49'47.15"W), dropping 50m in 0.68km to Ponsworthy. As if that wasn't enough of a hazard, there's a very narrow bridge (this is the reason the village has remained so unspoiled - tourist coaches can't get to it) at the lowest point just as the race enters the tiny hamlet and the Ponsworthy Splash, a ford - there's a narrow, dry footway which one or two riders may be able to take, but the majority are going to get wet.

The Coffin Stone (CC from Geolocation)

Cat 2 Dartmeet Hill starts in the hamlet with the highest point 1.2km ahead at the ominously-titled Coffin Stone, lying split in two by the road. According to legend, pall-bearers carrying coffins over the hill for burial at Widecombe would stop for a break here, placing the coffin on the stone while they had a nip of fortifying whisky and, if the inhabitant of the coffin had been a popular character, carve his or her initials into the rock. One day, they were carrying a coffin containing the mortal remains of a man said to have been the most evil in the parish when a storm began to blow up, making them look forward to the whisky even more than usual. When they placed the coffin down, a bolt of lightning shot down from the crowds, cracking the rock in two and completely engulfing the coffin in white fire which, as was discovered once they were able to approach, completely consumed both it and its contents. Crosses and letters can still be seen carved into the rock, suggesting that coffins may once have been temporarily placed here, but the split is far more likely to have been caused by ice expanding in tiny fissures over many winters.

Fox Tor (© Herby CC1.2&others)

The descent is short, leading to a T-junction 0.6km ahead where the peloton turn right and then, 0.1km later, begin the next climb, Cat 2 Huccaby Tor. The highest point is at 59.6km, at which point the race heads towards another 20% gradient descent ending at a cattle grid and narrow bridge leading into Dartmeet. There's another cattle grid 0.7km after Dartmeet, another 2.4km later and a third 1.8km after that. Note the large stone-built enclosure in the the field to the right as the races passes through. As the race crosses the 66km mark, approximately 1km from the last kilometre, it passes to the left of Fox Tor Mires - a treacherous peat bog that still claims the lives of walkers to this day and which is said to have been the inspiration for Grimpen Mire, the location of Jack Stapleton's secret hideout in the Hound of the Baskervilles. We wonder if he might be an ancestor of HTC-Highroad manager Bob Stapleton? (And before anyone emails to inform us that the story is fictional and so for that matter is Sherlock Holmes, don't bother - we know.)

The ancient clapper bridge, Postbridge

The Two Bridges hotel appears after 69km, where the riders turn 110 degrees onto the B3212 and begin heading back to Moretonhampstead, arriving at Postbridge along the way. The village has a well-preserved clapper bridge, believed to date from the 13th Century and probably constructed to allow the passage of packhorses carrying tin to Tavistock. There's another cattle grid around 0.55km after the village, then a long straight section leading across the moor to the Warrenhouse Inn - the highest pub in southern England and with possibly the finest views enjoyed by any pub in England. No matter what the weather outside, the fire in the pub has been kept burning continuously since 1845. According to local legend, a traveler staying at the Inn at some unspecified point in the past was a little surprised when he opened a trunk in his room and discovered a human corpse within. When he informed the landlord, he was told that the corpse was the landlord's father; salted by his wife and put there until the weather improved and he could be transported to Tavistock for burial.


The first part of the road ahead is straight, but a couple of tricky bends lie 3.46km away by a carpark. The first, a wide right, wouldn't normally be hazardous were it not at the end of a fast descent and in an area where there's a fairly high possibility of the sheep, cows and Dartmoor ponies which roam semi-wild about the moors leaving slippery little presents on the tarmac - there's another cattle grid at 82km, too. The second,a left, is 0.27km further on; the same potential hazards being compounded by the much tighter turn. There are two more 1.58km ahead; the first being a tight left and the second a tight 90 degree right 0.27km later, just before the road passes the Miniature Pony Centre, another attraction worth knowing about if you need to bribe children into behaving themselves while you watch the race.

Dartmoor, covering 954 square kilometres, has been a
National Park since 1951

Moretonhampstead makes its second appearance as the race reaches 87.5km with the peloton taking the second exit at the roundabout to ride onto Court Street, staying on the left of the road to line themselves up for New Street and a left turn at the oncoming T-junction onto the A382 which they'll follow over two crossroads to the feed station at 96.9km - the same route as earlier, but ridden in the other direction. It begins at a sign for a campsite (50°42'20.18"N 3°51'8.80"W and ends at the 30mph zone signs just beyond Whiddon Down.


The roadbook instructs us to take the second exit on the roundabout onto the A3124. Problem - the A3124 is rather a long way from here. Thus, going on the supplied left/right directions, we think they mean the A382. It then tells us to turn left 0.4km later onto the A3219. Problem 2 - the A3219, also known as Dawes Road, is some distance away in Hammersmith, West London. The B3219, meanwhile, is in the right spot. This leads over the A30 and north to a crossroads 8.8km away just south of North Tawton, where a right turn carries the peloton onto the A3072 - the book gets that one right. It's long, straight and - in comparison with the beautiful moorland roads earlier on in the stage - rather boring for the 5.4km section into Bow. As it happens, the distance is roughly the same as that between the A3219 and Bow Street in London - we wonder if that's where the mix-up began? 

Copplestone Cross

A depiction pf a knight carved above a doorway at St. Bartolomew's Church in Bow (actually in the contiguous village of Nymet Tracey) is said to be a representation of the same William de Tracey we met earlier. Approximately 1km to the west is a woodhenge, plainly visible in aerial photographs. Believed to have been used for similar purposes as the better-known stone circles, archaeological investigation following discovery in 1984 located 19 postholes.


The road passes straight through with the peloton staying left at the junction near the end of the village to remain in the same road and arrive at Copplestone 5.3km later, site of the 3.2m tall intricately carved menhir known as the Copplestone Cross, first mentioned in 974 but evidently much older. It looks rather incongruous and dejected, standing on a junction in the middle of the town.


The race continues straight ahead at traffic lights, crossing the railway bridge as the road becoming the A377. There's a potentially dangerous left bend under overhanging trees 2.6km after the bridge, the the remainder of the section past Barnstaple Cross into Crediton - birthplace of St. Boniface, remember? - 124.3km from the start. The unusually late second sprint starts 0.7km later on Western Road, just outside Queen Elizabeth's school. We hope that the inmates will be allowed out to watch the race, because we'd have been too annoyed for words had a major bike race passed by our schools and we hadn't been permitted to watch. Once over, straight ahead leads onto the High Street and Union Road, then the peloton turn right onto East Street just past the Church of the Holy Cross and the Mother of Him who Hung Thereon, site of St. Boniface's shrine and commonly known as Crediton Parish Church for obvious reasons.

Traditional Devon cob houses, Silverton (© Penny Maes, CC2.0)

East Street takes the race onto Mill Street after a left turn, leading to a junction 1.5km later where the peloton turn 90 degrees right onto an unclassified road leading around a golf course. The road bends to the left, reaches a crossroads and continues ahead past Shobrooke. Some way beyond the village, the race reaches a T-junction where riders will need to turn right and then left 25m later to continue towards a kicked crossroads  2.5km later, requiring the same process but on an even smaller scale. The road then leads into Thorverton, where the race turns left along Bullen Street and follows the road through to Latchmore Green and a T-junction with the A396, 138.8km from the start, turning left to head north and then right 1.1km onto Upexe Lane into Silverton.

Arriving at a roundabout, the riders take the second exit onto School Road then repeat 0.3km later to join Park Road. This leads to a crossroads 0.8km later where they go straight through, keeping right to arrive at Ellerhayes, following the road to a T-junction 146.1km from the start, just over a bridge crossing the M5 motorway. A right turn leads into Broadclyst 2.3km later. Just south of Broadclyst and contiguous with it is one our very favourite British place-names, Dog Village. At a junction 1.2km ahead, the riders turn left onto Station Road, staying right past Broadclyst Station until they arrive at a T-junction and a left turn towards Rockbeare. The final sprint begins 2.3km at Cranbrooke Veterinary Surgery.

To the south of Whimple - not in the town, as the roadbook appears to suggest - the road reaches a roundabout. The peloton take the second exit to pass under the A30, arriving immediately at a second roundabout where they once again take the second exit, leading them out onto the B3180. They pass straight through the crossroads 2.6km ahead. After 164.7km, the arrive at a junction with the A3052 where they need to turn left and then right 40m later to get back onto the B3180. Having passed along the fantastically named Outer Ting Tong road, the race travels through a tight right/left Z-bend and to a junction with the B3178. They turn right here onto Salterton Road and head into Exmouth, continuing straight through several traffic lights before reaching a roundabout 179.6km from the start and taking the second exit onto Carlton Hill.

The Clock Tower, Exmouth, built to commemorate Queen
Victoria's diamond jubilee in 1897

The following section is straight for 223m, ending with a slight kink to the right. They turn right 56m later and begin the final sprint. There's a slight bend to the left after 95m, followed by a straight 182m to the end of the race at the Clock Tower 180.3km from the start (50°36'57.12"N 3°24'54.35"W).

While their is evidence of trade with overseas taking place in Exmouth during pre-Norman Conquest times, including a number of Byzantine coins found on the beach in the 1970s, Exmouth didn't develop into a town until the 13th Century; progression having been held up by the shallow waters at the edges of the estuary and the economic power of Exeter. The modern town came into being during the late 18th Century, when sea-bathing became a fashion among the rich and trendy; making it the oldest seaside resort on Devon. The modern docks were built in the 19th Century and parts of the estuary dredged so that larger vessels could come into port. It was connected to the railways in 1861, facilitating the beginnings of mass tourism and a golden age during which it became increasingly wealthy - many of the grand buildings date from this time.

Predictions: It's almost certainly a stage for a climber, though none of the climbs today compare with the high mountain passes of the Tour de France so it could also go to a strong all-rounder. However, those two steep descents will permit any rider with the confidence to ride them fast to build up a good time advantage - which is why we favour Thor Hushovd on this one.


Weather: Not looking too bad, though it's not going to be particularly warm with lows of around 13C and highs up to 17C. It can get colder on Dartmoor, so spectators planning to watch the race there should take extra clothing. The wind, blowing from the east, will be very light throughout the race - though once again, things can change quickly on Dartmoor. No rain is predicted anywhere, nor are giant thunderstorms with ball lightning either produced by the Devil or otherwise.


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Vuelta a España - Stage 12 Preview

Corpus Christi, Ponteareas.

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Stage 12 is a transition, really, designed to get the Vuelta from one set of mountains to the ones climbed tomorrow in a more interesting way than loading them all onto the team buses and driving up the motorway. As this is the Vuelta, and the organisers seem to have deliberately made sure there aren't any easy stages, there are two fair-sized Category 3 climbs and four little uncategorised hills between 150-200m stirred into the mix too. All in all, it's a race for the puncheurs - too hilly for the flat-out rockets, while the grimpeurs will be saving their legs for tomorrow's mighty Cat 1 Puerto de Ancares - or even for a domestique who feels strong enough whilst his team captain concentrates on getting through unscathed. Whatever happens, expect an early breakaway; probably one composed of little-known riders keen to reveal themselves as the grimpeurs of years to come.

Castro de Trona, ancient defenses

Ponteareas is acting as a stage town for the second time; it hosted the start of Stage 16 in 1987, won by Frenchman Dominique Arnaud. It was the birthplace of Delio Rodriguez (1916-1994), whose record of 39 Vuelta stage wins set between 1936 and 1950 remains the all-time record. His younger brother Emilio (1923-1984), also born in the town, was a successful rider too, winning the mountains classifications in the Vuelta and several other races; as was Alvaro Pino in 1956, winner of five Vuelta stages. This is a town with cycling in its blood, so expect a party atmosphere - and if there's one thing Ponteareanos know how to do, it's celebrate: the annual Corpus Christi fiesta, in which they use millions of flowers to carpet entire streets and squares, has been officially declared to be of International Tourist Interest by the Spanish Ministry of Industry. Nearby is the Castro de Trona, the remains of an ancient defensive construction or village. Some of the rocks forming the remains are carved with mysterious petroglyphs. There is also a medieval bridge, believed to be the source of the town's name.

Pena dos Namorados, the Rock of Love, Pontaereas: huge
boulders each weighing many tonnes stacked atop one
another (presumably by glacial action). Or giants -
you never know.

The neutral zone begins on the Rúa de la Esperanza, a wide and modern thoroughfare with tall, airy buildings running along both sides. It runs sourth-east to the Plaza de Bullagal, turns right - potential for fuel spillages/puntures here - along the Av. de Constitucion and joins the Rúa de Concha Brey, running contiguously south-east past the Town Hall to a roundabout where a tight left turn sends the peloton along the Av. de Galicia towards the Rúa Real. The Rúa Real is also the N-120, which the riders will travel along after turning left at the roundabout. Three speed humps lead to another roundabout where they go straight through, coming immediately afterwards to a bridge over the Rio Tea - the bridge is wide and unlikely to create any issues, but the location is beautiful and not to be missed. Looking left, down the slow, shallow river, the medieval bridge can just be seen. The road is straight and wide, running past A Lomba, Areas, Gandara and Peso before reaching Rocha, where the real race begins after 4.8km.

The races continues along the same road, which remains poker-straight except for a sweeping left and steep (but mercifully short) climb into a wooded section between Periero and Confurco, reading 170m just before the peloton pass across a fly-over above the A-52 and begin to descend towards Cans. The rocks protruding between the trees on the hillsides above the village, at first glance natural, are the remains of fortifications dating back to the days of the . Turning west around woodland, the N-120 reaches Porriño which, just 7.2km into the race, marks the first of the day's intermediate sprints along the Calle Sequieras and Rua de Antonio Palacios - both are straight, but both have several speed humps. At the end is a sharp left at a roundabout to join the N-550 running south.

Porrino Town Hall.

The town is famous for the marshland directly to the south, which has brought added fortune to the area since, being an important resting point for migratory birds and reputedly one of the richest ecosystems anywhere in Europe, it attracts ornithologists and naturalists from far afield. Porriño was the scene of a small but very effective revolution of sorts in 377 CE: after a farmer and his family had been slaughtered by the local king, Ghrovary el Pueril (so-called because he took the throne aged 17) in return for failing to pay the punitive taxes he had levelled upon them, a band of around a hundred villagers decided it was time to act. They were soon joined by 400 commoners from the surrounding villages and, en masse, stormed the king's fortress and put him to death, thus ensuring that the nobility would thereafter treat them with respect. The town's name is believed by some to be derived - perhaps a little too circuitously for some others - from the Latin version of the king's nickname, puerīlis. Today, the town's wealth is based largely on industry and especially on the mining of pink granite - one of the nearby mines claiming to be the largest source of the material in the world. Local stone was used to construct Porriño's remarkable town hall which, rather than following the classical style shared by almost all other Spanish town halls, looks like a combination of elements taken from St. Pancras Station and Hogwarts Castle. The architect - Antonio Palacios, born here in 1872 - used a similar grand Gothic style at Madrid's Palacio de Comunicaciones, though on a scale magnitudes larger.

The road continues south, never quite making it into open countryside though the buildings become more widely spaced for a while, until it eventually meets the A-55 which has been running parallel to the right for the last few kilometres just south of Eidos. At a roundabout, the N-550 becomes the PO-510, a road heavily used by the trucks ferrying granite from the mine just to the east to the ships waiting at the ports to take it off to China, which has become by far the largest market for granito rosa Porriño, and other nations around the world; meaning that the road may prove to be hazardous due to diesel spillage - the fuel being as invisible as it is slippery on a road surface. It is, needless to say, far from the most pleasing landscape along the 2011 parcours, so it's a good thing for us that the route soon turns east and enters an area of oaks, green fields and pretty - if not especially interesting - villages; most of which just come into contact with one another, giving the distinct impression that we're really in a very large, very sparse city rather than travelling between independent communities.

After 23.1km, the peloton come to a roundabout in between Salvaterra de Miño and O Castillo and turn left onto the PO-403, now heading north. The road continues to Abelleira, encountering nothing with obvious potential to form a hazard. At Angoares is Igrexa Parroquial de San Pedro de Angoares, a church of unusually English Perpendicular appearance. It's tiny but somehow imposing and looks as though it'd have made a very grand cathedral had it have been built to a scale perhaps 30 times greater. In no time at all, the race reaches Ponteareas for a second time and passes through town back to the roundabout near the medieval bridge we saw earlier, travelling straight across and onto the PO-254 heading north-east and, 41.3km from the start, to Balneario de Mondariz. We enter along the Calle de la Constitución with its Z-bend, then turn an easy left onto the Calle Ramón Peinador which sweeps around the northern edge of town before turning south to join the Calle de Octubre leading out. There are numerous speed humps along the way.

A short way to the south from Mondariz is the Castillo
do Sobroso, dating to the 10th Century but occupying
the site of a prehistoric fort. Having been abandoned in
the 18th Century, it fell into disrepair until it was bought
by the Conde de Torrecedeira in 1923, who carried out
restorations at at his own expense until his death in 1967.
It has since passed into local government ownership and
is now open to the public.

Balneario de Mondariz has been a popular spa resort since Roman times, many traces of their presence having been discovered in the vicinity. Oddly, despite their appreciation of natural beauty and cleanliness insisted upon by their faith, the Moors didn't make their presence felt here and have left little trace, leaving the town almost forgotten until its rediscovery by the nobility from the late 13th Century. The modern town dates from the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, when there was a craze for spas and the health benefits their waters are said to bring. The most impressive building is undoubtedly the vast Palacio del Agua, a grand hotel dating to 1893. The exterior remains much as it was then, while the interior has been much modernised so that the hotel can offer everything that the sort of people who like to pay enormous sums for supplemental health therapies and beauty treatments consider necessary during a holiday.

Cyclists and other proles who require nothing more than a sink in which to wash out sweaty clothing and plenty of food during a holiday leave the town via a through-arch bridge and soon come to Mondariz where a short and narrow connecting road leads to a sharp left onto the PO-252. Having passed a large industrial site,  the road narrows to pass across a tall stone bridge before climbing towards Quintans and A Portelsa da Bouza, villages immediately west and east. The Category 3 climb of Alto de Moscoso begins 1.4km after the villages, throwing in a woodland hairpin for good measure shortly afterwards, even though the terrain isn't at all steep yet - though it does become so for a short section a little further on when it climbs a wooded slope and enters a sharp left bend which, with the trees depositing leaves onto the road, might be hazardously slippery. By the time we reach A Rua, there are superb views across the Val de Tea, which the riders won't see as they're going in the opposite direction, then the route progresses along the side of a steep slope, dropping hundreds of metres to the left and rising hundreds of metres to the right. It's a very beautiful section, easily making up for the one south of Porriño earlier. The summit, at 400m, is reached just after we pass through As Xunqueiras on a forested hill. Immediately afterwards, we descend into Moscoso.

At a junction, we turn left onto the PO-250 - not, as the road book has it, the PO-252 which ends here. This road is much wider and heads south-west, descending through beautiful countryside until it reaches Amoedo, 62km from the start of the race. The road, also known as the Carretera Redondela de Pazos, is wide and smooth and descends fairly rapidly without dangerous bends, encouraging very high speeds - until Quintana, where a very tight right-left-left combination will take a few millimetres of rubber off the brake blocks.

Redondela

We enter Redondela along the Calle de Xóan Manuel Pereira, leading us to the Plaza Ribadavia. The riders turn right at the first exit after the river (which passes underneath the Plaza) to enter the Calle Alfonso XII, which is narrow for a while before opening out into a riverside park and joining the Rúa José Antonio, which merges into the Calle General Rubin. At the end, the peloton turns right and joins the Carretera de La Coruna Tui, also known as the N-550 and, in less than a kilometre, the Av. Santa Maria. A little over 2km later, we join the PO-2901 heading for Viso and beginning to climb once again. There are two 19th Century stone and iron viaducts in the locale, the Viaducto de Madrid and Viaducto de Pontevedra. When the first of these was declared unsafe for use following completion in 1876, Pedro Floriani - one of the men responsible for its construction - climbed up it and attempted suicide by leaping off. His bid failed, leaving him paralysed for the rest of him life. Today, it is disused - the Viaducto de Pontevedra, meanwhile, is still in use.

We pass through Viso and its attractive little square, only slightly marred by some ugly 1970s houses, continuing along the PO-2901 which is now heading east to Alxán. When the road meets the PO-2908, the peloton turns left, coming presently to a roundabout where they turn sharp right to pass onto the PO-244. After 4.6km, having covered 81km from the start of the race, they reach the feeding station and the beginning of the Cat 3 climb of Alto Ponte Caldeas. Silvoso comes a short way on, the road remaining wide and smooth all the way without difficult bends all the way to the summit 88.2km from the start at 320m just past Roca. There is one of those ridiculously pretty, crystal clear streams running along the bottom of the shallow valley to the left. Roca, incidentally, being one of those tiny villages where almost all of the young people leave as soon as they possibly can, has many picturesque ruins; set off perfectly by the beautiful surroundings. It's always sad to see what must have once been a vibrant community in its death throes, but Roca is doing it in an extremely aesthetically-pleasing way. The descent is not challenging and ends at a T-junction where we turn left into Ponte Caldeas.

The bridge into the town stands high above the lazy, weedy water and, being wide, should cause no problems. The PO-532 running through to the west looks simple too, with little in the way of street furniture. Ponte Caldeas' name is believed to derive from an ancient bridge - the Ponte - and the hot sulphurous springs in the area, from the Latin caldas, scalding. Having left the Ponte Caldeas behind, the peloton reaches a roundabout near the village of Cunas and passes straight across it to find Tourón after a little under 3km. It clips the very northern tip of Buchabad, then passes a huge second-hand car dealership and repair shop - hence, possibility of fuel spillages on the road - before it travels on to Vilarchan, where a peculiar stone hórreo can be seen from the road. The stone legs supporting it some way off the ground reveal it to be a granary, but it's an unusually ornate one, looking distinctly like it belongs in a graveyard.

Igrexa de Peregrina, Pontevedra

We swing north to avoid A Reigosa, a large industrial complex home to several distribution points which will again increase the likelihood of diesel spillages, the west around an open-cast mine. Soon, the peloton reaches a crossroads and turns left, passing by various villages as it approaches Pontevedra along the Av. de Marco. There are two roundabouts immediately south of the city - at the second, having crossed a fly-over, the peloton turn right onto a narrower slip road and proceed to a third roundabout where they turn right again onto the Carretera Coruña-Tui. The Carretera becomes the Av. de Vigo, an urban street, and leads to left turn at a roundabout to access the Av. Fernandez Ladreda heading west. There are ten raised speed humps along its length and two roundabouts, making it quite a technical section. At the second roundabout, we turn right into the Calle General Rubin before turning left onto Av. Reina Victoria which initially narrows between buildings before opening out into a wide thoroughfare. Having reached a roundabout - site of Pontevedra's own answer to Manhattan's Flatiron Building which, though singularly unattractive, blocks the bullring from our sight - the parcours turns right and runs along the Rua de Alameda and takes a sharp left halfway along for the Rue de Echegaray. We pass straight over another roundabout and the road becomes the PO-308 on the other side, then carries across the Puente Barca bridge. Just to the right, still sticking out of the water, are the pylons of the old bridge.

Old stones at Combarro. The building on the
right is a horreo, a type of granary.

The bridge leads to yet another roundabout where the peloton turn left onto the Av. Barca, soon coming to a second roundabout and a left turn to join the Av. de Andurique - they're both easy corners - and continue along the PO-308 as it passes by Albar and through O Convento en route to Seara do Rio and another roundabout, going straight across. Having passed through Seca, the road follows the coastline for a while; passing by some modern sculptures that owe more than a few thanks to the megaliths erected by our Neolithic forebears. Very soon, it reaches Combarro and the peloton have to deal with a number of pedestrian crossings and speed humps before two bends lead to the harbour. Though the sleek, white yachts give the little town a modern appearance, it's actually of some antiquity as is revealed by some of the old stone buildings along the seafront.

Leaving the harbour behind, the road once again makes its way along the coast and passes through many small villages, mostly joined together to form a long, thin strip; then reaches Sanxenxo 124.4km from the start. There are many speed humps, but try to take your eyes off the racing as we pass the Nuevo Templo, a rather odd modern church with a many-tiered roof that makes it look a little like a Chinese temple as designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The road becomes the PO-504 as it passes a roundabout at the edge of the town and carries us north-west through more villages, wide and undemanding except for a few speed humps, then ends at a T-junction on the PO-550 where we turn right. This road is flatter, straighter and even less technical than the last, forming what is very much a transitional stage - the views as we cross the bridge near Cambados coming as something of a relief. The second intermediate sprint takes place along the Av. de Galicia in the town.

Sights from Cambados

Cambados is famous for its wine, called Albariño but nicknamed the Wine of the Sea as the salty and acidic local terroir make it especially suited to seafood - something else associated with the town, with the local shellfish being highly valued by gastronomes. We follow the PO-550 as it curves to the east and runs along the Estrada de Ribadumia. After a roundabout, it changes name to the PO-300; then we turn right 90 degrees onto the Estrada de Covas de los Lobos at Vilariño and come presently to Bouciña and Covas. A short way to the south-east is the Puente Barrantes, a wide modern bridge leading onward to A Escusa and a T-junction with the PO-9305 where we turn sharply left and then right almost immediately afterwards to join the Av. Rosalía de Castro or PO-9402. Having passed under an underpass beneath the AG-41we arrive at Meis San Martino, heading north-east to go back under the same road, which becomes twistier as we approach Meis. Reaching a roundabout at O Mosterio, we turn right onto the PO-300, past Meis and continue to the PO-531 where we turn right once again. The road is wide and easy, passing under the E-1 motorway a few times on the way to Devesa where the peloton turn left to join the PO-225. The road narrows slightly as it crosses a bridge just past the junction, the again as it rounds a bend and comes to the N-550.

At the junction, the race turns right opposite the Restaurante Corinto - potentially quite a hazardous bend, being very busy and thus having a likelihood of fuel spills and/or puncture-causing detritus from vehicle collisions - bringing the peloton back onto the Carretera Coruña a Tui for the final run back into Pontevedra. At a large roundabout they take the left exit to join the Av. de Santiago de Compostela, a wide and largely straight avenue leading to the grand Puente Santiago across the Rio Lerez. To the left can be seen the new Puente de los Tirantes, absolutely unique and perhaps the most beautiful bridge constructed in Europe during the last century. On the opposite bank we reach the Av. Buenos Aires and turn left, then right at a roundabout to join the Calle de José Malvar Figueroa before a tight left to the Calle del Doctor Laureiro Crespo. The finish comes after 167.3km on the Av. de Lugo.

Puente de los Tirantes. The single tower rises from a roundabout south of the bridge.

Local legend states that Pontevedra was founded by none other than Teucer, half-brother of Ajax and nephew of King Priam, one of the Greek heroes at Troy - the town hall still bears a carved plaque with a poem making such a claim. Legends don't necessarily need to be true, of course, which is fortunate as this one has been dispelled by archaeologists who can find no trace of a settlement of any size here prior to the 1st Century BCE. The Romans built a bridge - still in use, though reconstructed in medieval times - and made it an important city, which it remained into the Middle Ages. By the 15th Century it had become one of Galicia's economic and cultural centres, the shipyards generating vast wealth and building, among others, Columbus' Santa Maria. 

Convento de San Francisco

However, in the following centuries the port began to silt up and the ship building industry failed, taking much of the city's wealth with it. Galicia as a whole entered a period of decline as the rest of Spain entered the Renaissance, the population falling due to plague and skirmishes among noble families. By the 18th Century, it was less than half what it had been three centuries previously. By 1800, it was a provincial dead-end town, locals supporting themselves by fishing and farming, often at near-subsistence level. The turn-around came towards the end of the first quarter of the century when, having drawn up new boundaries for the provinces, the Spanish chose Pontevedra to be developed as a new regional administrative centre. As such, it gained a rail station, reconnecting it to the outside world from which it had been cut off once the harbour became unusable; and the economic and cultural recovery could really begin. By the middle of the 18th Century, Pontevedra became the hub of nascent attempts to revive the Galician language which had been all but replaced by Spanish - the world's first modern book in Galician, "A Gaita Gallega," was published here in 1853. As many as a third of the population can speak it today.

Praza de Lena

Despite starting the 20th Century with enormous potential to do well, cultural and industrial progress ground to a near halt during Franco's regime, though some new industries were established during the 1960s - most of them subsequently shut down due to the terrible environmental and health damage they caused. The city waited for freedom, and began to flourish once again following the advent of democracy in 1977. New buildings were constructed, bringing health and vibrancy back to the economy. During the 1990s, the city gained its first university which now attracts students from all corners of Spain and further afield, allowing the city to benefit still further from a multicultural society.

Among the multitude of sights, Pontevedra offers the Praza da Leña with its attractive mixture of buildings of varying ages; the Puente de los Tirantes; the Convento de San Francisco and the Museo Provincial de Pontevedra which houses a collection consisting of more than 16,000 works of art.

Predictions: Continuing our long history of successful stage winner predictions - we've got one right so far this year, and that one was so obviously going to be won by Rodriguez - we're going to point the finger of doom at Sylvain Chavanel today. Why? With no high mountains nor challenging climbs along the 167.3km parcours, this is the ideal sort of stage for a strong breakaway to whack up the tempo and build up a big gap between themselves and the main group. Of course, most of them will find the going gets too tough towards the end and fall back down the road to the peloton - or even the grupetto; but Chavanel is not as most riders and can keep going...and going...and going, right to the end.

Weather: Rain! Some people who watch the Vuelta are a bit surprised that it rains in Spain, but it does - and as we'll be spending a fair bit of our time on the plain today it's going to mainly rain on the race; or the first half of it at any rate, because it ought to lighten and clear up for the last 80km. Oh well. At least it'll be cool: highs of 20C are going to feel blissfully pleasant when compared to the hellish 35C+ temperatures recorded in the first few stages. In fact, we may even see riders reaching for jackets as the roll over the tops of the two Cat 3s - the predicted 16/17C up there can feel really quite chilly during a descent when wind-chill becomes a factor. You like echelons? Well, tomorrow could be a good opportunity to see them - crosswinds all the way will vary between light to moderate, almost certainly encouraging riders to adopt the tactic during those long low altitude sections. UPDATE: Reports from the finish line state it's beginning to rain with dark clouds and increasing wind - pointing to a possible storm later on.

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Vuelta a España - Stage 11 Preview

Stage 11 finishes at 1750m above sea level in the
Manzaneda ski resort.

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Let's hope all the riders got plenty of relaxation and visits to the masseur during yesterday's rest day, because Stage 11 is a killer - there's a 450m climb in the first 15km, which ought to put paid to the first few breakaway attempts unless an elite pack of climbers fancy giving it a go, then it's up and down all the way to a flat 15km starting at the 107k point and then, from 138km, it's a Category Especial (the Vuelta's version of Hors Categorie) up the forbidding slopes of Montaña Manzaneda with gradients approaching 11% in places. It's a demanding parcours in other ways, too - no more of those long and straight sections we saw in Stages 9 and 10, this one wiggles about all over the place. It's just possible that today will allow us our first glimpse of the rider who'll be wearing the Red Jersey for the celebrations in Madrid.

Castillo de Monterrey.

Situated right on the Portuguese border, Verin, the start town, is famous worldwide for the water which bubbles up from various springs in the locale; water that supposedly offers a range of benefits to human health in addition the usual "stops you dying of dehydration" benefits linked to consumption of normal water and which attracts visitors from far and wide. It's also the location of an especially fine castle, the Castillo de Monterrey, about which the town formed and became one of the richest communities in the province of Orense. It's more a fortified citadel than a castle, including within its walls a small town (abandoned in the 19th Century) complete with a hospital and a monastery - nowadays, it contains a parador, a type of luxury hotel very popular among those who can afford it (ie, not amateur cycling journalists). Many also visit for the Carnival, which has retained its medieval flavour and remains untouched by the more boisterous Latin American-style partying that has changed most Spanish fiestas so much.

Cigarrones festival in Verin.

The neutral zone begins just south of the town's heart on the Av. Portugal near the Patio del Colegio María Inmaculada with its gleaming modern buildings, then changes onto the Carretera Cabreiroá via the Calle As Tuelas leading north to the Calle Constitución which in turn finishes back on the Av. Portugal, a short way from the start. The peloton travels the short distance to the end of the road, turns right onto the Av. Luis Espada and then right again onto the Calle de la Diputación and left onto the Calle Hermanos Moreno before reaching the technical right turn to join the Calle de Espido which ends with a 180 degree bend to reach the Calle de la Canella Cega. The road leaves the town and comes to a left corner onto the Calle San Antón, leading past Verin's curious Mercado Municipal which looks like a modern retake on one of those Viking longhouses with a roof built to the same plan as an upturned longship. An easy right puts them on the Calle de San Rosendo. The Vuelta road book seems to have forgotten to include details of how the race then gets to the Av. de Castilla - it has to be said that Vuelta route details are sometimes a bit poor when compared to those of the Tour de France - but the most obvious method would be by turning left at the roundabout at the end of the Calle de San Rosendo, then right almost immediately right to join the Calle de San Pedro which leads directly to the right road heading north-east towards Fumaces. The first climb begins as soon as Verin is left behind and the neutral zone ends just after a wide bend on the N-525, 9.5km having been ridden thus far.

Fumaces, while giving the impression of having been a far more populous and bustling place in days gone by, is a rather decrepit sort of place with crumbling old buildings and inhabitants in similar shape - making it quite a likable sort of place, all in all, and worth a brief visit in passing. The road just scrapes the southern edge, but if you blink you'll miss it. The climb, a Category 3, ends 0.6km later but the road continues to rise gently towards the next villages, A Trepa followed by San Cristovo, which the book doesn't mention at all. Soon, the race reaches Ventas da Barreira, the informal name of As Vendas da Barreira. This is another village in a state of serious decline - whereas the N-525 once brought visitors, they and their money now pass by on the A-52 motorway which cuts the village in two, the eastern half connected by a bridge. The population is aging, the average age increasing every year as the young people leave to find work and more exciting lives elsewhere, and it looks as though the little community will be no more within a few decades. There is a strange stone cross near the end of the village: on one side of it, as expected, is Christ; on the other, standing rather than crucified, a queen dressed in a long cloak and crown.

A Gudina's church.

The route crosses the A-52 on a second bridge a kilometre later before passing just to the north of Navallo, then begins to climb the uncategorised (and thus point-free) Alto de Herosa featuring an undemanding 150m ascent in 8km. After some wide S-shaped stretches alongside the motorway, it enters a straight part and comes to A Gudiña after 31.8km. This village exists in two parts - the first is little more than a series of houses and businesses that have grown up along the road, some of them attractive enough, the second is the main part and houses the unusual church which, though of typically Spanish design overall, somehow looks strangely megalithic with its large grey stones. Many other structures in the village are built along similar lines meaning that while the village is poor - visitors may still see carts pulled by oxen here, though tractors are more common - it achieves an imposing look. Near the end of the village, the peloton turns a sharp and possibly slippery left to join the OU-533 as it heads north.

The road is twisty, but the bends are all gentle for the first few kilometres and should cause no problems. Very soon, it enters a much greener region and begins to descend quite rapidly - the bends here are tighter and the combination of more technical parcours, wind-blown leaves and high speed could lead to crashes, especially if it's raining. A couple of tiny villages pass by, O Castro to the east and then Pradocabalos to the west. Soon, a river can be seen flowing to the left and becoming noticeably wider as the peloton moves along the road. As the race crosses a bridge, there are excellent views to some rich red cliffs.

Iberian Wolves. It would be fantastic to see one,
but we won't.

As the parcours passes San Cibrao das Viñas to the east, the river on the other side of the road is 100m wide and it becomes apparent that it's flowing into a lake - in fact, this is the southern arm of the artificial Embalse de Bao, considered small by Spanish standards at a mere 256 square kilometres. This an area where there are many fine old oaks, making the narrow lanes, green fields and little cottages look as though they belong in England rather than Spain. The wildlife, meanwhile, is a little different to that of England: this is one of the very last places where the Iberian Wolf survives, though the chances of ever seeing one are miniscule. The church is small and has a squat tower, surprising since almost 4,500 people live within the municipality it serves.

Having rounded a right-hand bend, the road passes into a wooded section with superb views across part of the lake just to the north. It comes out at the Puente Bibey bridge which stretches 100m over the water to Viana Do Bolo, situated 51.5km from the start. Viana is largely agricultural, with several of the farms providing only enough food for the families that run them - however, many people in the area make a living through the sale of chestnuts which are exported throughout Europe, an industry which has fortunately survived the forest fires that have ravaged the area in recent years. Others work in the nearby hydroelectricity plants. The village has a long history, having been the site of a pre-Roman fort of which no trace remains at ground level, and numerous Roman artifacts have been discovered both coincidentally and during organised archaeological expeditions in the area. It's very much a village to get lost within, with ancient streets winding this way and that between a jumble of rustic hovels and very fine houses - one of the best is the Casa del Curas with a beautiful glazed gallery high up on one side, no doubt the scene of many pleasant afternoons spent watching life in the town. The castle keep dates to the 9th Century when it was built to protect against Moorish attack - it now houses a museum of ethnography and has an extensive collection of artifacts revealing the day-to-day lives of people in the area. Each year, during the Carnival, the town holds Domingo Gordo, "Fat Sunday," a huge feast attended by more than 3,000 people.

The race passes through town along the Traversia Nicolas Tenorio, Rua da Libertade and Calle Libertade, exiting on the OU-533 and beginning the Category 2 Alto Da Gonza. The next village is Mourisca, where the peloton turns right onto the much narrower OU-951 and presently reaches the stage's first hairpin bend. The parcours continues to climb, reaching the 1130m summit 61km from the start. The riders turn a 90 degree left and the top and descend towards Castromao, turning left just before reaching the village and joining the OU-804 which heads east towards the Embalse del Prada.

Casa Do Bailarin
(for more pictures and information, click here)

When within 150m of the shore, the road turns south and passes through a series of four bends which have the potential to be slippery and hazardous. It turns to the east, straightens out for a while and then deviates left to pass along a bridge leading into A Veiga. As they enter the town, the riders will need to negotiate a roundabout with an enormous boulder planted in the centre, pointing to the sky like an ancient menhir. Soon they come to a stone cross, depicting Christ being offered a goblet of wine by a small child - an event I don't recall ever reading about, but my knowledge of the bits of the Bible coming after the Old Testament is admittedly slight. The road becomes the OU-856 at this point and passes through the town leading north. The route misses Casa Do Bailarin, but the camera operators are very unlikely to miss the opportunity for a few shots of this remarkable house which looks to have been created by the combined efforts of Antoni Gaudi and several billion barnacles. On closer inspection, it turns out the entire structure is encrusted with tiny pebbles, bits of colourful tiles, bottles, shells, tiny sculptures of all sorts of things and anything bright that whoever it was that decided to decorate the house in such a way could lay his or her hands upon. Strangely, the house is little-known outside A Veiga and locals are always a little surprised whenever a tourist asks for directions to it - it could very easily attract many people were it better known.

The race passes by Casdenodres before arriving at Castromarigo, a village split into three separate parts among the trees. North of the village, the road enters a forest and takes a sharp bend after around 150m, descending as it does so and thus raising the likelihood of hazardous conditions. Another tight bend just north of Candeda - where we'll hopefully get to see the tiny chapel - should be less dangerous as the peloton will be climbing again, reaching 1000m above seal level shortly before they pass Meda. Another tight forest hairpin lies a short way ahead, pointing the route towards a 70m high outcrop which affords excellent views across the lake. The parcours turns a very tight right hand corner just before Prada, joining the OU-121 and coming to the feeding station. Prada dates back to at least the tenth century when it was mentioned as a parish in diocese records, but today is almost a ghost town except for during the summer weekends when the rich outsiders who have bought up the homes come to visit. It seems a shame when a village suffers this fate, but does at least mean that it'll be preserved as the attractive and interesting place it is and that those locals who remain will continue to receive injections of money from outside - it might not be real life, but it's better than the slow death endured by Ventas da Barreira. There are many old cottages in the village, some perhaps not quite as pretty as the others, a few of which have strange patterns carved onto their ancient stones; the Santuario del Cristo de la Ascensión with its outdoor pulpit used in the days when the church sometimes attracted more worshippers than would fit within is an interesting building.

The road leads north-east, on high ground with excellent views into the 300m deep valley to the left, then veers east to pass along the edge of a forestry plantation. There are some tight bends on the other side, not quite hairpins but just sufficiently demanding to require some skill, then the peloton rides out into open, rolling countryside - where, should it be windy, there'll be no shelter. Another tight bend leads into trees and past an abandoned hut dug into the bank at the side of the road, almost consumed by the woodland surrounding it. Coming after less than a kilometre are three descending hairpins - the first two are very steep, dropping about 20m. The road narrows considerably here, about 1.5km from Santigoso.

A surviving part of the Order of Malta's complex in
O Barco de Valdeorras.

The road is straight and not technical as it travels through the heart of the village, descending as it heads north to a tight left towards a trickier section featuring five bends, a hairpin and another five bends as it makes its way along and down a steep slope line with deep gulleys. At the bottom is Villoria, 105k from the start; the peloton passes along the Rua de Portela and Av. Elena Quiroga to the OU-536 and the bridge crossing to the opposite side of the river to O Barco de Valdeorras, by far the largest town we've seen in a long time. The town has a lot of history, remains dating to the time of Europe's first human inhabitants having been found in nearby caves, and it was important to the Romans who began the mining industry which still forms the largest sector of the local economy. During the Middle Ages, it became a regional administrative centre and gained several stately homes of which some still stand. The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and Malta built a complex in the town, some of it remains. The 17th Century Pazo del Castro and nearby remains of a 13th Century castle should also be seen.

However, this is not a dusty backwater full of crumbling old buildings - as a modern, vibrant town, O Barco de Valdeorras has some very good modern buildings including a rather Bauhaus-like town hall. Another good example of modern architecture can be seen when the peloton turns left off the bridge and, after a short stretch along the Antigua Estrada, reaches the Edificio de Esquina which resembles a shorter, wide version of Manhattan's famous Flatiron Building. They turn left again here, passing along the Av. de Marcelino Suárez and beginning the first intermediate sprint running along the Av. Galicia - straight, flat and untechnical, so presumably an ideal place for the sprint specialists to bag the points. The Avenida ends at a roundabout and the race moves onto the N-120 as it heads west to Villamartin de Valdeorras.

Villamartin de Valdeorras, despite having much of interest,
relies of mining rather than tourism and as such remains
undeveloped.

Villamartin, despite its selection of stately aristocratic houses and historic structures, continues to base its economy on mining rather than tourism and as such remains very much an industrial town; undeveloped and very real. However, it would be worthy of a short visit, partly because of that gritty realism and partly for the stately homes, Los Pazos de Arcos being a good example of the latter. On the eastern edge of the town, the race turns right onto the much narrower Calle Miguel de Cervantes to pass through town and join the N-536a running west towards San Miguel de Outeiro, another one of those villages offering much interest to those who seek a warts-and-all experience of life as lived by the majority of poor Spaniards away from the tourist traps. The road becomes the OU-603 here, following the river for a hile before turning off towards A Rúa. Unlike the rest of Galicia, with its mild maritime climate, A Rúa experiences enormous variations in temperature - since 2006, the lowest recorded has been  -7C and the highest 43C: ideal conditions for the growing of good quality vines, viticulture being the most profitable industry in the area. However, the excellent road links to nearby cities and beyond has led to it gradually becoming a popular tourist base and chalets are being built on the hillsides. The presence of a natural lake roughly 750m wide immediately on the south of the town may well encourage the development of a watersports centre in the near future, too. The peloton enters the town along the Calle Campo Grande which, roughly halfway through, changes name to be the Calle del Progreso and features four raised speed humps and then becomes the OU-533, where the next climb begins.

The riders cross the river using a wide, modern bridge; but to the left can be seen the Roman bridge, much repaired over the years so that while it probably doesn't constitute a particularly good example of Roman architecture anymore, it has an aesthetically-pleasing collection of arches in various styles and shapes from wide and Classical to pointy and Gothic. A little further on, the road veers south along a short river inlet - on the opposite bank is a rocky stack, the top of which is inhabited each year by storks. Having passed through Freixido de Abaxio and onto the OU-636, the second intermediate sprint begins. After 130km from the start, the race reaches Larouco; another village that won't make it into any books of stately homes but with plenty of interesting cottages, some of them apparently much-expanded over the centuries to form large, slightly chaotic-looking homes. The 565m Cat 3 summit of Alto de Ermida comes 3.1km later after two wide and undemanding hairpins. This section of the descent, though steep in parts, should cause no problems unless it's wet as the hairpins are all wide - the only obvious potential hazard is a 90 degree left onto a narrow bridge, forming a bottleneck which will be approached at high speed, and a similar corner on the other side. It's a very beautiful spot, so let's hope the riders get through smoothly and the camera operators concentrate on filming the bridge and surrounding landscape instead.

Inglesia de San Salvador, Sobrado.

The next hairpin is much tighter and made more hazardous by an unsurfaced track joining the road at the apex, a place where there is likely to be grit, mud and dust on the road's surface. Some way on, the peloton reaches a granite roadside fountain and turns through a very sharp left onto the OU-0701 - another point which may prove dangerous - reaching Mendoia (and not, as the road book has it, Mendola) shortly afterwards. Once through the village and past its attractive cottages built of undressed and unmortared stone, the peloton approaches Sobrado and passes by the Pazo de Barbeirón; a large and, if we're honest, quite ugly stately home which is now a hotel. The 12th Century Iglesia de San Salvador within the village is much more attractive.

The road forms an almost perfect three-quarter-circle loop then a left-hand hairpin. A wide 90 degree left, 1km from Sobrado, begins the stage's last climb - and it's the big one, the Especial Category ascent to 1750m. Before getting to the mountain, the race needs to pass through Manzaneda - a simple process via the Calle de la Cabarca and Calle del Reiguero. It's an unexpectedly pretty place after so many dull villages along this stage, a place of stone arches and spires added to buildings without apparent reason. Just over a kilometre outside town, there's a right corner onto the Carretera a Paradela which enters a Z-bend and begins to climb more rapidly, passing by Paradela de Abaixo before reaching a junction. Straight ahead leads into Paradela, right - the direction for the peloton - leads further up the mountain, reaching 1100m less than a kilometre further on. The road follows a 1km loop, featuring the steepest part of the climb with a 10.5% gradient about a large expanse almost free of vegetation, and soon reaches Cabeza de Manzaneda at the bottom of the piste, 162km from the start and 5km from the end. After 0.4km, they turn left and onto the final road to the summit, arriving at 1750m through five hairpins.

In recent years, Manzaneda has spent much time, money and
effort developing summer attractions - among them, the vast
Bike Park with XC, DH and even North Shore-style Freeride
trails. It is, of course, also very popular among road cyclists!

The Manzaneda ski resort is the only example in Galicia, with a history of skiing dating back to the 1930s when an intrepid band of enthusiasts trekked into what was then a very remote part of Europe. Finding the combination of beautiful scenery, range of slopes and forest very much to their liking, they recommended the location to others and an organised resort - albeit on a far smaller scale than today - soon grew up. Things really took off in the late 1960s and early 70s after the 10th Winter Olympics in Grenoble and cheaper flights saw the sport's popularity explode. Investment totalling 70 million pesetas in 1972 permitted the construction of a lift, new chalets and other facilities, making the resort even more famous. A series of warm winters with little snowfall proved disastrous in the 1980s and forced the management company to pull out but the Xunto de Galicia took up the reins and, taking some big risks, tentatively continued to develop the resort - fortunately, the gamble paid off and soon became profitable. Since the mid 1990s, they have also developed summer sports around the resort, with a a particular emphasis on cycling; the pistes doubling up as ideal mountain bike trails and bringing much-needed year-round income to the region. It now hosts a series of leisure facilities, including indoor climbing walls, karting track and a swimming pool; as well a choice of restaurants - Os Arandos is especially well-reviewed - and nightlife. Despite having a nightclub and several bars, it has concentrated on providing a family-friendly service sometimes lacking in other resorts and the pistes, ranging from yellow to black, suit skiers of all abilities and ages.

Pistes make superb mountain bike trails in summer.

Predicitions: Definitely a climbing specialist, but who? The obvious choice once again is Joaquin Rodriguez, but the other climbers aren't going to be too keen on letting him keep on having everything his own way, so we can expect a few of them to go all out and try to keep him in check today. The most likely challengers are Daniel Martin and Chris Sørensen - but Bradley Wiggins is always an outside chance.

Weather: Things may chance during the rest day, but at present it looks like we'll see the first rain of the 2011 Vuelta during Stage 11 - it's predicted all the way through the first half and then again towards the finish line, which isn't going to be welcome at all with all those climbs and descents. Temperatures will be much lower as a result, fluctuating between 16 and 18C during the first half, climbing to 22C in the lowlands before the final climb and dropping gradually as altitude increases to the finish - right down to a distinctly chilly 11C at the summit. Gentle tailwinds are predicted over the first half, then gentle headwinds for the second half just as the riders are becoming tired.

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