The Vuelta a España has done it again. In the latest instalment of its long history of offbeat or downright unlikely starts, stage 6 of the race officially got underway inside the giant Carrefour hypermarket in the southerly city of Jerez de la Frontera on Thursday.
The Vuelta has already had starts as unlikely as the inside of an aircraft carrier in nearby Cadiz and off gigantic oyster-growing rafts called bateas on the far side of the country in remote northwesterly Galicia.
But not even the Vuelta has ever hosted a stage start from inside a retail store, in a celebration of the 12th anniversary of sponsorship by Carrefour, and which saw the usual business closed down for the celebration of the stage.
“They haven’t come here to buy eggs, they haven’t come here to buy bread, they’ve come here to fight for a victory!” was how MARCA’s cycling reporter described the scenes inside the hypermarket as behind him the peloton slow-pedaled past the cashout desks, shopping trolleys and aisles of produce.
Realistically, there was no chance of a rider grabbing a couple of boxes of eggs or any produce, with barriers ensuring they stayed in a broad corridor for their 100-metre dash across the supermarket floor.
Outside, too, the parking lots were used for race organisation vehicles to wait for the stage to get underway, with the usual starting ‘paddock’ for team buses situated on an approach road on the outskirts of the hypermarket complex. The sign-on podium was placed strategically - for photographs and videos - in front of the centre’s main door.
Even three hours before the start, long lines of fans, and possibly the odd baffled shopper, could be seen picking their way across the mass of main roads and roundabouts surrounding the out-of-town Carrefour, thronging round the team buses and the sign-on podium, as well as visiting the different sponsor stalls dotted around the carpark.
Then shortly before 1:00 p.m. local time, race director Javier Guillén walked through the supermarket at the head of the pack, with a brief stop mid-way through for a photo opportunity with the different jersey wearers on specially-painted floor panels representing each classification. A few minutes later, Guillén was back in his race director’s car outside the building, the peloton picked up pace for the 8km neutralised section and the stage to Yunquera was formally underway.
“One of the main motors for the Vuelta and cycling in general is constant changes of scenario,” Guillén told Cyclingnews as he waited for the stage to get underway. “And this is what we’ve done. We had a request from the race’s main sponsor and we wanted everybody to come to the fiesta. Cycling’s sustainability depends mainly on those sponsors and this stage start is something of a homage to all of them, not just Carrefour.”
Pioneers of supermarket sponsors
In terms of logistics, Guillén said it was anything but complicated to organise such a start, given the huge amount of parking space in a hypermarket.
“I honestly don’t think this is comparable to starting in an aircraft carrier like we have done [2015]. But it’s certainly showing another image of the Vuelta and it’s in line with our philosophy of ‘if you can do it, then why not do it’?
“I don’t see anything too different to what we’ve done before. Sports-wise, the road is out there as usual, and there’s no change at all. But this kind of start has got a certain charm to it, for sure.”
The two supermarket sponsors of teams in the peloton, Intermarché and Lidl, took the boost to their rival’s profile in good humour, with Intermarché posting a picture of their riders in front of the Carrefour logo outside the building with the title ‘No thanks, only Intermarché supermarkets’. Lidl showed a photo of the riders in the middle of the supermarket with the observation, “It’s amazing what you can find in the middle aisle".
Carrefour’s 400 employees in the Jerez de la Frontera Sur branch were delighted with the stage start in their workplace, as a rapid interview by Cyclingnews of several staff - Marta, Inma, Jose Antonio, Moises, Mercedes - amply proved.
“We were really surprised that it could happen,” they said, looking over one of the barriers in some amazement at the journalists wandering up and down prior to the riders themselves coming through, “but we’ve got used to the idea pretty quick. It’s made the supermarket look very nice and it’s great to have the event here.
“It was all done very fast - a quick coat of paint, the decorations went up quickly, and they put up the barriers overnight.
“We’ll be re-opening this afternoon at 3 p.m., so it’s back to business as usual. Other supermarkets will do this for sure, but we’ll always have the memory of being the first ones, and that’s unforgettable. We’re the pioneers.”
Get unlimited access to all of our coverage of the 2024 Vuelta a España - including breaking news and analysis reported by our journalists on the ground from every stage as it happens and more. Find out more.
