SPECIAL | The Vuelta a Espana from the inside: Remco's view, Manzanares' hooligans and Pelayo Sánchez's future

The day dawned cloudy in the Sierra, with intermittent showers and heavy traffic on the way to Manzanares El Real, the beautiful Madrid town that hosted the start of the penultimate stage of the Vuelta a España, the last one that could prevent Sepp Kuss from taking home the red.

In the Adolfo Suárez square, next to the starting line, we had breakfast in the traditional La Charca Verde, a mollete with bacon and cheese and a carajillo before living the presentation of the teams. Festive atmosphere in the village while the first rays of sunshine could be seen between some clouds that seemed to want to give respite to the race: Madrid did not want to imitate the start in Barcelona.

The tension could be seen in Remco Evenepoel's eyes seconds before the start. The Belgian was hungry for his fourth victory and, aware that he was going to go out at full throttle, he didn't want to lose his concentration.

Juan Ayuso was congratulated for his 21st birthday and the fans present at the start sang him the traditional 'Happy Birthday'. The man from Jávea, very happy, smiled as champions do. Thus, after the protocol ribbon cutting with authorities eager to be in the photo, the start was given to the very hard stage with 10 ports and 4000 meters of unevenness that Remco had described as 'harder than the Liège'.

We were trying to leave Manzanares to go to the 2 mountainous difficulties that we thought were going to decide the stage: the Cruz Verde and the Alto de San Lorenzo del Escorial. However, some vandals were dedicated to slashing car wheels and we hit the jackpot: our FIAT Panda had both left wheels smashed.

After the nails that almost ended the Vuelta of Juan Ayuso or the oil confiscated by the Guardia Civil before being thrown on the road, came another act of vandalism in an edition of the Vuelta a España that does not win for upsets and in which, unfortunately, the hooligans have been shining by their presence.

Thus, the circumstances 'forced' us to return to the Charca Verde and nourish ourselves with 3 free-range eggs accompanied by 'torreznos de Soria' while we followed the race via Eurosport. All this while waiting for the race caravan to leave the town and the crane could come to assist us.

As we finished the free-range eggs, Remco Evenepoel and company were a few minutes ahead of the peloton and it looked like there would be no fight in the overall to threaten the red of Kuss.

Minutes later, at the foot of the Robledondo pass, when the breakaway was 5 minutes ahead of the peloton, the tow truck came to our rescue and managed to drop us off at a workshop in Collado Villalba. The efficiency of Pedro, the kind guy of the tow truck, allowed us to take a cab that left us in El Escorial to live the last of the climbs of the day.

At that point it was clear that there was no ambition among the general classification and the interest was in Remco could offer us another victory or someone from the breakaway could snatch it. The atmosphere in El Escorial was festive, with hundreds of people eager to enjoy the last mountainous difficulty of the Vuelta a España 2023.

Great atmosphere in the cobbled area of the Escorial, which looked like the Mur de Huy, with a spectacular Pelayo Sanchez who gave us an interview in the run-up to the race and showed the class he had.

Tremendous finale, with a well-deserved victory for Wout Poels, who already showed in the Angliru to be in an extraordinary form. Remco and Pelayo were left with the desire. We were able to enjoy him in the final cobblestones despite the problems... and the Vuelta, despite everything, is still a lot of Vuelta.