LATE FLIGHT TO BILBAO

It used to be a gig for the hard-as-nails faction of the Classics peloton. Before the Belgian mud had even been sluiced off their bikes at the end of the Tour of Flanders, a small cohort of riders would be on their way to the airport and a plane bound for the start of the Vuelta Ciclista al País Vasco. A sojourn in northern Spain was deemed an acceptable – if not a comfortable – way to pass the time before Paris-Roubaix.

The trend reached its apotheosis in the mid-1980s when Sean Kelly was second in Flanders and victor in the Basque Country in 1984, 1986 and 1987. The latter two País Vasco victories came while in the electric yellow livery of KAS, a Basque soft drink brand. Kelly did not have much choice. Nowadays, bigger rosters, the prevailing orthodoxy of sports science and perhaps a dose of good old common sense negate a last-minute dash to the plane, but a trickle of riders still make the journey. This year it was two.

In the chilly spring shade cast by the monumental buildings of the Paseo de Pablo Sarasate in central Pamplona, Alexey Lutsenko and Michael Valgren, both of Astana, checked over their bikes. Lutsenko was full of the story of his Flanders, which had been compromised by three bike changes before the Muur. Valgren, on his debut, finished 11th.

“It’s not the first time I’ve done a big one-day race and then a tour. I did Strade Bianche and then I went straight to Paris-Nice so it’s kind of similar – and Paris-Nice is longer,” Valgren said. “After Paris-Nice I started to find some good legs, so that’s why I decided to do this in front of the Ardennes Classics.” Valgren explained it had been a pretty straightforward journey. “Our flight was around nine, so I had time to say a goodbye or two, chat to some guys for television and have some good food, which is probably why I’m feeling okay today,” he said.

The pair still arrived after midnight. “It is kind of strange to go from one Monument to race País Vasco because this is one of the hardest races. Whether I’ll finish it, I don’t know,” he said.

The opening stage was a sedate circuit northeast of Pamplona with three mild climbs. The peloton easily contained the trio of breakaway riders until the 5km-to-go mark, when the race abruptly turned off the main road and onto an exposed farmtrack. That drew failed attacks from Lotto-Soudal’s Tim Wellens and Julian Alaphilippe of Quick-Step who punctured. The stage ended, however, with a Michael Matthews sprint victory, the first in his new Sunweb jersey.

Amid some vast apartment blocks in the Pamplona dormitory suburb of Eguesibar-Sarriguren, with hundreds of children playing football in the municipal parkland, Valgren said: “I got some shoulder claps from the other riders and that’s pretty cool. It’s nice to get some attention from others. I guess they kind of respect you more. Other riders who have done the Tour of Flanders know exactly what they don’t want to do the next day, which is ride their bike, especially in a race.” One thing was out though: neither was going full King Kelly and bookending their race with Paris-Roubaix.