The weather today was as good as it’s been since Thursday, and we took a gentle ride over to Muro to watch the pro riders mill around for a bit before we headed west on our ride. “Mill around” is the right phrase, the atmosphere was really relaxed—no more ‘first-race of the season’ frisson that was detectable on Sunday, but just minor-race mellowness. The riders were checking their bikes and preparing to start their day’s race from Muro to Alcudia — the distance between these two is only about 8km, but they did a huge circle over past Puig Major and then the Soller pass before racing east on the flat to the finish by the sea at Alcudia. Edvald Boasson Hagen (here on the left) was looking relaxed and happy, and smiled at our ‘good luck!’ messages. As soon as Bradley Wiggins (below) emerged from the bus, some fans seemed to appear from nowhere (until then, we seemed to be the only people who weren’t soigneurs kicking around in the square). As well as the sky people, we spotted Tyler Farrar and Rigoberto Uran heading up to the start.
