"We could save stage 1, but today..." - Vuelta a Murcia devastated by strong winds that almost cancel entire race

Whilst the rain and the snow, usually the biggest threats to cycling races during the winter months, did not fall; the usually sunny and fair-weathered coast of Murcia was being hit by incredibly strong winds over the past few days which have severely changed the outlook of the Vuelta a Murcia. After the second day of racing was cancelled, some of the race's key figures gave their point of view on what happened.

The bad weather is not something that exclusively affected the race in Murcia this week - where bad weather has virtually affected every single pro race over Spain, Portugal and France - however the riders in the two-day race had it worst perhaps. Stage 1 was abruptly cut, however an 83-kilometer long course was still held, with echelons forming right from the start and the differences to the overall classification being massive.

Into stage 2, the warning signs were even bigger. "There were always doubts in the start, do we or don't we," Marc Soler, winner of stage 1 and eventual overall classification victor, told Eurosport. "There was an 'orange alert', we tried it, and then a lot of gusts of wind, some riders blown off course, so it was not entirely safe."

The peloton set off for the queen stage of the race, but right in its first moments, strong gusts were literally blowing riders out of the road. It was not possible to race in such conditions safely and the race was neutralized. "It's always easy to talk when you're not affected and you're not one of the riders who went off course".

It was not possible to race under any circumstance, and eventually the riders took to the road again in the finishing city of Santomera, but in what could only be described as an exhibition event. A small neutralized ride, and then a small sprint which would have no official winner would end the day - before the podium celebrations.

Emils Liepins was the winner of that sprint, and so was also asked about his point of view on what happened. "We tried to start the race, the start was quite ok but after it was too windy, we could not stay on the bikes, so they neutralized the race and we just did the one lap here".

"The riders were saying the organization needs to make a plan before because they knew already it would be super windy. So they needed to make a Plan B, to know, not like one hour before they start to think what we do."

Race organizer Paco Gusman provided insight into the decision-making throughout the chaotic day out on the road."We can't do anything against a howling gale We could save stage 1, but today there have been gusts of up to 90kmh," he lamented. Even during the neutralized portion of the stage, right by the finishing town, it was possible to see how incredibly hard the winds blew.

"We'd reached an agreement with the riders, sports directors and the commissaires to do almost all the stage because initially it looked like we could do it and we reached that agreement between all of us, we took a risk and things went wrong,"

In the end, the Vuelta a Murcia was left with less than two hours of racing, but nevertheless a memorable day of racing this season. "Rather than rider safety being at risk, we decided to stop the race and head to the finish for the final short lap".