Stage 9: Vuelta a Espana in Alcoy

For the fourth consecutive day, I attended a stage of the Tour of Spain. Today, the tour started in the city of Alcoy – a 30 minute drive from where I am staying. This was the fourth time Alcoy has hosted a stage in the history of the Spanish Tour. The last time Alcoy hosted was in 2004. Even if I had not planned to attend the other stages, I would have definitely attended this one based on Alcoy’s proximity to Benimassot, Spain.

According to lavuelta.com the stage was to begin at 12:10 pm. Thus, I arrived in Alcoy and was parked around 11:15 am.

The Race
One of the benefits of attending the start of a stage is that you can “mingle” with the riders before the event begins. Of course, I define “mingle” as you can take pictures with them as they get their bike and gear ready for the day ahead.

The event started with the honorary cutting of the ribbon. The race appeared to begin about five minutes early when the bikes started riding and the caravan ensued. Since I was not with the Ultimate Sports Wife I did not take in any of the sites in Alcoy but headed back to the house.

Gustavo Cesar Veloso won the stage, while Alejandro Valverde took the overall tour lead and will wear the gold jersey.

Copa del Rey Round 2: Villajoyosa at Alcoyano

With a limited number of sporting events in the region, I chose to attend the Copa del Rey second round match between two Segunda Division B teams (Spain’s Third Division) – CD Alcoyano and Villajoyosa C.F. Last year, Villajoyosa was in the Tercera Division (Spain’s Fourth Division), but was promoted to the next level this after they won the division last year.

I chose to attend this match because, 1) Alcoy is the closest city to where Nicole and I are staying in Spain (about a 30 minute drive) and 2) the match was apart of the Copa del Rey rather than a Segunda Division B match. Teams such as Real Madrid and Barcelona will compete in the Copa del Rey in future rounds.

Parking
I arrived at the Campo del Collao about 15 minutes before the schedule 9 pm kickoff. I found a parking lot where, as was the case in Valencia, everyone seemed to just “squeeze” in. However, they made sure cars could leave early by leaving room. This lot was too tight for me to park in so I ended up parking on the sidewalk outside of this parking lot – I figured since other cars were parking on the sidewalk it was fine for me as well.

Obtaining Tickets
As with any minor league baseball or hockey game in the United States, there generally is no secondary ticket market. Thus, I did not even look for an extra ticket last night. I knew ticket prices ranged from 10 to 20 euros since I looked at the Alcoyano website earlier in the day. The first ticket window only sold 20 euro tickets for sideline seats. Instead, I walked to the next ticket window and bought a 10 euro seat behind the goal.

The Game
The stadium reminded me of a small minor league baseball stadium in the United States. There were a lot of sponsorships around the stadium and it only sat 5,000 fans.

Alcoyano scored a goal early in the first half and a second goal halfway through the second half to defeat Villajoyosa 2-0 and advance to the third round of the Copa del Rey.