Next Monday the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya will start rolling in Sant Feliu de Guíxols. And it is 40 years since the closest edition in history, when the Irish Sean Kelly, from Skil, was proclaimed the winner after finishing tied on time with the Asturian-Catalan Pere Muñoz, from Teka. Nothing like it has ever been seen in the century-old Volta.
From 1980 to 1998, the Volta had a main sponsor who guaranteed its continuity without burdens. Those were the years of La Caixa. And in 1984 a renewed management team arrived at the head of the race, with Joan Peirató as president. The race took place over eight days, with a time trial prologue and seven stages, two of which were divided into two sectors. Ten chapters in total.
Sean Kelly, 28, left Platja d’Aro as one of the big favorites, in a year in which he had already conquered Paris-Nice, the Tour of the Basque Country, Paris-Roubaix and Liège. A sensational runner especially for classics and week-long races. The Volta was his objective and he won the first stage (Sant Boi), in the two sectors of the fourth (Barcelona and Manresa) and in the seventh, a time trial from Llançà to Sant Pere de Roda (18.4 km) where The race was decided.
Ahead of Arroyo, Gorospe, Belda, Millar and company, Kelly’s great opponent was Pere Muñoz, a 25-year-old cyclist, born in Mieres, but based in Olot. An athlete trained with will and sacrifice, with a tough and outspoken character who remembered at the starting line how he had had to combine his cycling hobby “making sausages at the Espuña house” and the frustration he suffered when, during the military service, they prevented him from training (he was already a professional then) while “the commander gave permission to the footballers, who played in the regional category.”
Muñoz became the leader by conquering the queen stage alone, the fifth, which culminated at 1,900 meters, at the top of Puigmal. Kelly was second, 19 seconds behind, and there was only one difficulty left: the Sant Pere de Roda time trial, in which on paper few could trust the Olot cyclist’s options.
“I have always said that there are people who do not want to see me on the podium. Sometimes they look down to the hundredths, depending on who it is, of course.” Pere Muñoz did not hide his anger at the outcome of the time trial. Kelly won, as expected, but Muñoz’s pride allowed him to secure second place of the day… 19 seconds behind the Irishman. Kelly’s time stopped at 32m47s, and Muñoz’s time stopped at 33m06s. Tie in the general classification, which would no longer be modified.
The times, in time trial stages, were determined by the referees installed at the finish line, with a manual stopwatch. The moment the front wheel of the bicycle touched the white line, the judge moved his thumb and stopped the hand. For everything to fit together perfectly (if it can be considered that way), it was essential that the departure times, in this case in Llançà, about twenty kilometers away, were scrupulously respected. And that the timekeeper’s finger did not tremble in the slightest, of course.
A race like the Volta, of international level, had a main judge appointed by the International Cycling Union. But the timing tasks corresponded to the Catalan Federation and were usually carried out by veteran referees. It is evident that the reliability of this rudimentary system was relative. It was quite a spectacle, for example, to approach the finish control tower in a line stage and see how the referees were singing cyclists’ bibs loudly, hastily, as they crossed the line. Of course, as a sign of modernity, they already used a small tape recorder to record their litany. The recording was then played back and classifications established, with the help of rudimentary photo finishing, if necessary. The complete classification of a stage resolved in a mass sprint could take hours to be officially released.
Change was not far away because that same 1984, in the Tour de France, there was a tie in a time trial, this one of 51 kilometers, precisely between Kelly and Laurent Fignon. The Tour now had more precise timing, and was able to determine that the winner of the stage had been Fignon by five hundredths of a second. The novelty was so shocking that at the time it was commented that they had actually given Fignon the winner because he was French. And period. Currently, bicycles are equipped with a sensor that certifies the exact moment in which they have crossed the finish line and the timings easily determine the fractions of a second, if necessary.
Once the final time tie was consummated in the 1984 Volta, the regulations established that the positions achieved by the cyclists in all stages of the Volta had to be used. And here, logically, Kelly was far superior. His score (one point for finishing first, two for finishing second, etc.) added up to 33, and Muñoz’s score was 170, much worse. The Volta was Kelly’s. Currently, the hundredths of a second of all time trial stages would be counted and the winner determined. So the decision was… finger-picked.