As if driving the three,261 kilometres of the 2024 Vuelta a España as his final race was not sufficient, Spanish veteran Luis Maté (Euskaltel-Euskadi) is celebrating his retirement by driving the 600 kilometres from the Vuelta end in Madrid to his house in Marbella within the south of Spain.
Maté began his three-day return on Monday morning “with out getting up too early” and can keep in a single day in Puertollano, a city some 250 kilometres south of the Spanish capital.
He will then pedal on to Lucena, roughly 220 kilometres additional south, earlier than reaching his house in Marbella on the Andalusian coast after a shorter leg a while late on Wednesday afternoon.
Maté accomplished his twelfth and final ever Vuelta in 61st place general, throughout a closing season during which he additionally celebrated a closing win, a stage within the Volta a Portugal.
“It’s partly to get used to the concept of leaving my professional profession behind, however I’m occurring being a motorcycle rider, and this is sort of a transition, driving house from being a professional to driving a motorcycle ‘for actual’, ” the 40-year-old instructed Cyclingnews.
“So doing that in itself was interesting. But on the similar time, I’m attempting to make an announcement about one thing actually vital, which is how we must be altering modes of transport, within the curiosity of combating local weather change for the nice of the planet.”
“It’s one of many greatest challenges we face as human beings. Professional cyclists successfully act as loudspeakers. And if we will elevate consciousness about that specific query with rides like this, that’s one thing that issues quite a bit.”
Maté stated he will probably be driving the 650 kilometres on backroads and secondary highways to keep away from visitors and with the naked minimal of baggage to cut back weight: “A cellphone charger, some garments to put on within the afternoon, a toothbrush and another toiletries and that’s mainly it.”
His brother will probably be driving alongside him within the three-day journey, however Maté stated that different riders are welcome to hitch them alongside the route.
“It’s producing lots of curiosity, so I’m going to publish the route and anyone who desires to come back alongside for a part of the experience, can achieve this. If they need to do a few activates the entrance, then that’d be even higher!” he stated.
Mate has already carried out comparable ecologically minded initiatives. In the 2022 Vuelta, for each kilometre he spent in a breakaway, he planted a tree within the Sierra de Bermeja mountains close to his house after the realm was badly affected by forest fires.
“That was one other concept to try to elevate consciousness in regards to the atmosphere, too,” he recalled.
“Us skilled cyclists have the perfect stadium on this planet – it’s not Wembley or the Santiago Bernabeu, it’s one metropolis or space of countryside after one other, right this moment Madrid, tomorrow Malaga or Valencia or Alpe d’Huez or the Picón Blanco, or wherever – and now we have to take care of it.”
“That forest hearth was horrible, and it pained me badly as a result of it was close to my house. I wished to have the ability to plant some timber in order that future generations may see that space as we have been fortunate sufficient to see it in our personal time.”
This isn’t the primary time he has finished such lengthy journeys house by bike. In 2021, when the Vuelta completed in Santiago, he did an inverse ‘Camino de Santiago’ – the world-famous community of pilgrim pathways to the Galician metropolis. He rode from NW Spain to Marbella.
“That was longer – 1,200 kilometres and it took me six days. I loved that final time, some very heat welcomes in villages alongside the way in which and plenty of folks with me, in order that was very nice, and I’m hoping this one will probably be too.”
Then when he will get house, Maté says, he has deliberate one thing relatively extra festive to spherical out his profession.
“There’s going to be a celebration on the seashore, some good paella and seafood and beers and so forth. I’m trying ahead to that too!”
