Concha Piquer (1906-1990) was not a cyclist, but one of the most important artists of the last century, who carried the kopla in his huge trunks while traveling half the world. At a time when people in Spain didn’t travel like they do now, low cost flights and in the absence of platforms where you could find a hotel a few minutes before occupying the room, the legend of Piquer’s trunks was valid for anyone traveling to their hometown beyond a summer visit.
HE trunk of a car Embrace Whether it’s a fan’s or a team’s, the place is filled with luggage and often becomes a haven for formerly plastic, now fabric, bags of dirty laundry, as washing them becomes a turning point.
Many years ago, when none of the participants in the race were born and their parents, with rare exceptions, were children, the runners came to their boarding rooms and They washed their own competition clothes in the bathroom. The windows of the room, balcony or terrace, if any, have become a kind of clothesline for ‘jerseys’ and ‘coulots’, which dry without any problems when the night is hot.
open suitcases
Now tell a runner that they should hand wash their clothes, but some cyclists have a habit of not wanting their clothes to go into one of the washing machines installed on the team buses. Tadej PogacarFor example, you want one of your masseuses to handle this issue.
When will the worst happen? time changes suddenly and with almost no warning. Accredited parking areas established at the finishing area of the stages are filled with open suitcases on the ground, where raincoats or shorts are needed in case of a transition from cold to hot.
The warmth of masseuses
Each of the cyclists has their own suitcase. runners luggageThey find themselves perfectly placed in the room corresponding to them at each stage by the masseuses. Masseuses are something like the adoptive parents of cyclists at the Vuelta. They confess their sadness and joy to them, and not just about the race, before falling half asleep on the stretcher as the assistant tries to recover his muscles for the next day’s exercise.
The runners’ suitcases were grouped together with the directors’ suitcases. wrecker truck traveling from one hotel to another with their suitcases without crossing the bike route, looking for the fast route that marks the highway on duty.
But the cars are full of bags. backpacks cyclists, With fridges full of bottles, bars and gel boxes distributed among the cyclists when one of the runners stayed behind and went down to the car. Even the once domesticated tradition of using sociable people in this function is disappearing, because now, when approaching the car, the leader does not hesitate to put on clothes when it comes to cooling off to his friends.
Three weeks movement
Piquer trunks They gather every morning at the hotels where the members of the organization stay; One of his colleagues, who is in charge of the relevant minibus, puts them in the vehicle to drive from hotel to hotel like a squad truck, and I shoot because it is my turn.
And so on every day for three weeks. If you ask the assistants of a team, they will always answer that they prefer to go the extra mile and stay in the same hotel for several nights, rather than moving from one establishment to another with the necessity of making more kilometers from the legendary body. Concha Piquer.