Day Four: Dinner in Comillas - Astana Team Hotel

WOW.

Another extraodinary evening.... tonight we drove about 10 miles into Comillas, the same town we biked through earlier in the day.

We went to the hotel that Team Astana (and numerous others) stayed in during today's rest day for the Vuelta.

First we visited the team bus, met the mechanics and got very close to the bikes being ridden by Alberto Contador and Levi Leipheimer. 

Then we went into the hotel and got a private session with Johann Bruyneel, Levi, Andreas Kloden, Ekimov and "Chechu" Rubieru. Unbelievable!

We had about 90 minutes with these guys and in the end, Johann personally autographed his new book for all of us (I had mine signed for Cary Stenberg, who got me started cycling in 2001 (thanks, Cary!!!!)

Then dinner for the group, and while eating a fabulous European meal, all manner of cyclists walked by (including Carlos Sastre, who we didn't meet, but whose photo is part of the gallery below).

John & I were truly like two kids with backstage passes at a Led Zeppelin concert.

Off to bed - it's 1130PM local time and tomorrow we have two Cat 1 climbs, followed by the infamous Alto De L'Angliru (all the pros we met in the last 2 days said the same thing...this stage and the final HC climb is "very challenging")

Yikes! But what a once in a lifetime opportunity...to ride the same stage as the pros will, on the same day.

This evening's photos here

More tomorrow night!

JG