The hotel of miracles that protected the best cyclists in the world

BarcelonaWhen the day begins, you often can't imagine the surprise that fate has in store for you. Last Monday, the staff of a hotel in the Alta Cerdanya didn't know that, shortly after lunch, the world's best cyclists would knock on their door seeking refuge. A fearsome storm ended with a happy ending in the Vuelta a Espanya thanks to the hospitality of the staff of a one-star hotel, the IGESA Village Club Les Sorbiers.

The third stage of the race was taking place on French roads, but it had to be suspended a few kilometers from the finish when a hailstorm, the kind that forces you to seek immediate shelter, fell from the sky. The riders were heading up the ascent of the Montlluís pass, on the way to the Font-Romeu station, when so much rain and so many hailstones fell on them that it seemed like someone had cursed them. The Basque Mikel Landa saw a spectator with a large enough umbrella and took shelter under it. Some who were lagging behind saw a roadside cafe and went inside. At the front, the leader of the Vuelta, the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, made a gesture with his hands, indicating that they should get off their bikes. The organizers suspended the stage. If the icy hailstorm had surprised the cyclists as they passed through a town, they would have easily protected themselves, but in that mountain section it was different. The only building nearby where they could hide was the IGESA Village Club Les Sorbiers hotel.

The hotel is in an old building that was once a kind of clinic for asthma sufferers looking for a place to rest in the mountains. Afterwards, it served to house soldiers of the French army who were exercising in the area, as this has always been a highly militarized zone. Next door is a famous fortress that the French built when, with the Treaty of the Pyrenees, they came to control the area. It was in those years that they renamed the Catalan town of Vilar d'Ovança as Montlluís, in honor of the Sun King. Converted into a hotel for French families who want to go to the Pyrenees on a half-board basis, it is one of those old hotels, without luxuries, but with a family feel that makes people return. A hotel that could hardly expect to suddenly have almost 200 frozen people at its door. "We don't remember storms like this, and we've been here for years. It rains, you have some scares... But like this one, I don't remember any," the hotel director, Guillaume Villeneuve, told the French press. Villeneuve knew that the race would pass in front of the hotel and had thought of going out to the door to see Pogacar and company in action, as he is a cycling fan. But, as it was raining so much, he stayed in his office and turned on the television. It was in this way that he saw live that the race was stopping. "We had them at the door. So it was clear to me that we had to open the doors," he explained.

Suddenly, 190 frozen professionals entered the reception. They were all shivering, as the weather forecast had been wrong and they were dressed in flimsy summer jerseys. The temperature had dropped below 9 degrees, in addition to the icy hailstorm. Villeneuve asked the hotel staff to heat water, offer coffee and tea to the runners, and find towels for everyone. The runners started finding a place to sit. Some in the bar, comfortably. Others on the stairs, like students chatting. Since the hotel has a small gym, they offered it to the runners to have an extra space to rest, although more than one took advantage of it to do the exercises after each stage. They also opened the empty rooms, and the guests staying at the hotel walked among the runners trying to take photos with Pogacar.

When the storm passed, the runners boarded the team buses, which had been arriving at the hotel. It was then that they understood that the hotel had welcomed and cared for them for nothing. Altruistically. So, among themselves, they passed on a message: fill Google's search engine, where you can rate businesses, with positive reviews. "Perfect location even in the middle of a hailstorm. They provided us with towels two minutes after we arrived without notice. They deserve all the stars possible!", wrote Tobias Johannessen. The reviews have been removed by Google as many were from fans who have not set foot in the hotel, so many teams have written messages of gratitude on social media, causing a wave of sympathy towards the hotel.

The organizers of the Vuelta reacted quickly: one of the race officials went to the hotel and asked to pay the bill for everything that had been spent. But Villeneuve said it wasn't necessary. That they had done the right thing. As a result, the hotel's rating on Google continues to improve, and reservations for the coming days have not been long in coming, as many cycling enthusiasts want to go there. "We are a good place for cyclists. We have space to store bikes and we are close to good roads," Villeneuve was quick to recall. "I hope to return for a vacation one day," Mikel Landa said on Tuesday. Surely more than one cyclist will return. To remember that day in a strange August when a hotel won the hearts of sports fans by doing what we have often forgotten: helping others for nothing.