We took our seats in brilliant sunshine, with the chicane bending toward us. We were surrounded by beauty - the gravel traps and walls of tires, the candystiped ribbons of curb, the ads that repeat repeat repeat: Movistar Movistar Movistar, ING ING, Santander Santander Santander. And then the mountains and then the sky. I sipped from my bucket of Catalunyan beer.

Then there arose a distant whine, like the crying of the sun, and everything became a little more alive than it had been before.