Two tandems to make history at the gravel world cup in Girona

GironaThe first time Hugo Font got on a tandem, he felt dizzy. Going behind another person, without being able to see what was happening, gave him a sensation similar to riding a roller coaster with his eyes closed. “Until the body assimilates many new things and sensations...”, he explains in conversation with ARA. Now, almost five years after having joined ONCE, Hugo Font and Héctor Botí are about to face a much more demanding challenge and make history in a world competition: 109 kilometers of gravel at the Sea Otter Europe in Girona, alongside their guide pilots, Jordi Figueras and Charly Camacho from Lloret de Mar.

It will be the first time that two tandems formed by athletes with visual impairments participate in a UCI Gravel World Series event, although they will do so outside the official classification. And they will do it on terrain they know less than asphalt and which poses added difficulties. “There are two or three complicated points”, says Botí. The route has more elevation gain, more demanding climbs, and technical sections that force extreme coordination. A tandem is longer, stiffer, and weighs more than a conventional bicycle. On the climbs, this is noticeable. “You are dragging double the weight with two wheels and with difficult synchronization”, he summarizes.

Constant communication

The main difficulty, however, is not just physical. It is coordination. When one of the two cannot see the terrain, any bump, obstacle, or change in rhythm must be communicated. “If you come to a pothole, they have to tell you that you have to lift your butt. Shift up, shift down... Everything has to be very synchronized and you have to listen the whole time,” explains Botí. For Font, the key is concentration. “The guide doesn't stop talking. It's extra work for the guide, and we have to be one hundred percent focused on their communication.” That is why he speaks of “blind trust, never better said.”

The two athletes have known each other since Font joined ONCE in 2021. He had been a physical education teacher for 27 years, but a degenerative disease had prevented him from continuing to work. At ONCE, he discovered a new world and, shortly after, a triathlon group in which he met Botí. The first day, they spent an hour talking at a subway station after training. Since then, they have shared triathlons, marathons, open-water swims, and all kinds of challenges. “I don't understand my life and sports without Héctor,” says Font. “One of the most positive things about having gone blind has been meeting him.”

Now it has been them who have sought out a new mess: “One day Hugo said to me: ‘Shall we get into this?’. And we started looking for two guys who would pilot us in a beastly way,” recalls Botí. They found them in Figueras and Camacho, with whom they have built a relationship based on trust. They are not necessarily looking for the best pilots, but people capable of understanding what it means to be a team. “Without me, you don't arrive, and without you, I don't arrive,” says Botí.

To be just another team

This is also the main objective of their participation in Girona: that visual impairment is not the center of the story. “We are capable of doing the same things as everyone else, but differently because we have a guide,” says Font. Be it an open-water swim, a triathlon, a marathon, or now a gravel race. That is why they especially value that Sea Otter Europe, which this year celebrates ten years of the fair in the Fontajau neighborhood of Girona, has opened its doors to them. “That we are just one more person is the goal of inclusion and sport,” says Font. “That people see that we are just another team, regardless of whether we can see or not.”

The nerves are there. Just yesterday they did a final inspection of the route and Botí had a moment of doubt. But he assures that they left with the feeling of being prepared. And Font is already thinking beyond Saturday. While they were preparing the tandems, he asked Botí: “We’ll do it again, right?”.