Riders On The Strom - Cyclists return

And so things start to come to life. Unlike the first swallows of summer, the first cuckoos of late winter and the phoney early spring emerge in their cocoons, strapped and wrapped in lycra and clip-clopping across the floors of the supermarkets, sports drinks in hand and then barking to each other along the roads of the north. The cyclists are a-gathering once more, the Tour of Mallorca is not far off, but mostly these two-wheelers are the German and Swiss fanatics, keen-eyed, skin-face-taut, wind-and-weather-beaten like yachties, visions of facial health contrasted with the pasty, winter visages, the frumpy fizzogs of the locals. By the pointed thing roundabout, the boundary between the town and Playa de Muro, Alcúdia town hall has erected a special welcome poster of the cycling world in motion. Welcome, "willkommen", and then as they make the return trip, leave the municipality and enter Muro, the cyclists are sent off with a hope that they will be seen soon - till soon, "bis bald" in German. Piss off, baldy, might the odd, unsympathetic driver cry, and don't come back any time soon. On their two wheels, the much- and oft-cursed riders on the "Strom" ** are the current that sparks the early season, ignites activity among the first-mover bars and restaurants. Restaurant Boy will be "abierto" 9 February, opening its plastic-sheeted terrace to the Max-Hürzeler-ites of a nearby Playa de Muro Iberostar, moistening the Weizenbier glasses, flaming the grill under marinaded lumps of fleshy protein. Elsewhere, non-cycling-route bars are making their preparations; new shelving for the kitchen, sprucing up tables and chairs. The hibernation, the long sleep of post-October is a passing slumber of inertia and survival. Hope springs, or rather, late-winters eternal. Despite the mood of pessimism that depresses the long sleep period, optimism - muted maybe - begins to course through veins woken by some activity, any activity that is the pre-season.

It's starting again.


Note: for those of you not up to speed with the German, "Strom" means electricity or current.


QUIZ
And riders on the strom should be ...?

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.