Chapter 14

 

Menard and Burke were half way back to their hotel when someone called their names from behind. They stopped and saw José López approaching and, for an older man, he was covering ground quickly with a long-legged gait.

“Like you gentlemen, I thought it was time to end the evening,” López said. “Tomorrow will be another busy day.”

“Glad for the company,” Menard said. “It was another well-organized evening with a great meal.”

“It was, but I think the fideuà was a little underwhelming, a little unusual.”

Burke figured neither he nor Menard could tell good fideuà from bad. “What was different about it?” he asked.

“Something with the spices,” López said. “It was delicious, but not quite to Chef Andres’ usual standard, I think.”

They walked a few more steps in silence and then López said, “It was also time to go because people heard about the latest tragedy and wanted to talk about it and, to be frank, I didn’t want to hear any more about it.”

Menard and Burke exchanged a look. “What tragedy?” Burke asked, believing he knew the answer.

“You didn’t hear? One of the Vuelta catering trucks took a different route, crashed and the driver died.”

Burke nodded. “We heard something bad had happened.”

“You’ve both been involved in professional racing for many years. Do such tragedies happen often in big competitions like the Vuelta or the Tour de France?”

“To be honest, sometimes there’s a fatality associated with a race,” Menard said. “During a recent Vuelta, one of the stages finished at the Angliru which may be the toughest climb in pro racing. After the race, one of the spectators, a young woman, rode her bike down the mountain, but she crashed and died.”

López nodded. “I remember that. And now I recall that a Italian racer died a couple of decades ago in the Tour de France.”

“There was also a Belgian who crashed into a wall in the Giro d’Italia and died on the spot. Wouter Weylandt,” Menard said.

Burke interjected, “He was a very popular guy. And so was the Italian who passed away at the Tour – Fabio Casartelli. He was an Olympic gold medallist, too.”

Menard wasn’t done. “Then there was the British champion Tom Simpson who died in 1967 during the stage finish on Mont Ventoux. And those are just the racers. In recent years, two boys were killed at different times when the media caravan went by. And some woman in her 60s was killed within the last decade by a police motorcycle when she tried crossing the road during a Tour stage.”

“So, it’s not uncommon,” López said.

“Sadly, no. It’s the nature of a high-risk sport and the fact that millions of people come out to watch the races,” Menard said.

“But has anyone ever been murdered at one of the big races?”

“I recall one cyclist, who was notoriously unpleasant, was murdered not long after a big race, but that was decades ago,” Menard said. “And then there was another cyclist, a popular Italian, who was murdered while out training.”

“Who did it?” Burke asked.

“No one knows,” Menard replied. “But as for being killed while a race is being held, I don’t know about that.”

“I wonder if the media will make a big deal about what’s happening during this Vuelta,” López said.

“That’s a question Paul and I are pondering, too,” Menard said. “There wasn’t much coverage when Colin Bothwick’s death was announced, but I expect that will change quickly when the media learn he was murdered.”

“And having that truck driver die will probably get them even more interested,” López added.

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Menard said.

They walked in silence the rest of the way to their hotel. Back in his room, Burke was curious about something and so he turned on his laptop and accessed Google Earth. He punched in a general address and seconds later he was looking at the area where the truck driver had died.

The road was double-lane, narrow and twisting. There were no overhead lights and part of the road didn’t even have line markings which would have made the driving even more challenging. Canals ran on both sides of the road for several kilometres. In short, it wasn’t a route a person would take to save time.

He wondered about the driver’s identity. He checked mainstream media outlets online and saw just a brief mention about the fatality. A few reports said the driver was a male in his late 30s and a long-time employee of a regional transport company. His name wasn’t provided. Burke tried social media, but learned nothing more.

He was puzzled.

Why would an experienced driver take a rural, secondary route to save time when he knew the limitations of the road?

It was almost like why would a former pro cyclist ride an expensive carbon-fibre bike on a rough, pothole-heavy track on his way to the main highway?