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that's a lie, but coming to you from Figueres in Catalonia where I am standing, rather walking now.

I actually arrived in Girona yesterday with the intention of getting kind of sorted and doing lots of research for today's

broadcast podcast and I got completely diverted instead by a book that I was reading that

basically takes place in Suffolk so even though I was in Gerona I was my mind was completely elsewhere and if

you're interested in that story it's on my latest substack by the way not only that but I also

spent a couple of hours in the company of Giles Pidcock Tom and Joe's dad who is partially

relocated to Gerona and I had a good old Natter with him.

And we vaguely kept an eye on what was going on yesterday in the Vuelta, where of course

Tom is racing for Q36.5.

Anyway, Figueres is only a quarter of an hour in the fast train, quarter of an hour from

Gerona.

And that is where today's team time trial is taking place in about four and a half hours from now I've arrived it's an overcast day

it's actually been raining quite hard and thundering overnight and as a result this this part of the

world has got a very strong smell of petricor about it

which is that beautiful word that describes the smell of the earth after rainfall

...