This Week, the Vuelta a Burgos
This week, the 48th Vuelta a Burgos rolls through Castile — five stages, August 4 to 8, finishing with what's being called a decisive final day at Lagunas de Neila. Stage one finished at the Alto del Castillo, a summit finish inside the city of Burgos itself. For most brands, a race like this would just be a convenient hook. For me, it isn't. Burgos is where I'm from.
Where My Cycling Story Actually Begins
I was born and raised in Burgos. Long before there was a brand, or a workshop in Perth, or a titanium frame with my name attached to its origin story, I was a kid learning to ride on the same streets and roads this year's Vuelta passes through. That's not a marketing detail — it's where my cycling actually started, years before any of it had anything to do with a bike company.
So when the Vuelta a Burgos climbs through the city this week, it isn't an abstract coincidence for me. It's a race through the roads that shaped how I first got on a bike.
A Sword That Never Left
There's a second layer to this that isn't personal history but is still real: Tizona was El Cid's sword. A real blade, forged with steel consistent with an 11th-century origin, carried by Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, the Castilian knight whose story became Spain's founding epic, the Cantar de Mio Cid. Today it's on permanent display at the Museo de Burgos, jointly held by the regional government of Castilla y León and a consortium of Burgos businesses since 2007. It has never left the city.
I didn't choose that name only because I'm from Burgos — but growing up in the city that still holds El Cid's sword, in a country where that story is part of what every kid learns, it's hard to separate the two. A name that means "carried a long way and still standing" fit a brand built on Spanish design and finished on the other side of the world in Perth, Western Australia, for reasons that go beyond how it sounds.
Two Hemispheres, One Thread
I'm not going to pretend Tizona Bikes has any official connection to this year's race — we don't, and I'm not claiming one. But watching the peloton climb through my hometown, on streets that taught me to ride before any of this existed, isn't something I could write about as if it were just another content idea. It's the closest thing to home this brand has, seven thousand kilometres from where we build.
Following This Week's Race
Five stages, one city that shaped how I first got on a bike. If you're watching the Vuelta a Burgos this week, you're watching where this actually started for me.