June 24, 2025
Day 1: Valença to Barcelos
Hard! 1200m of ascent
Route details and data
https://strava.app.link/aXhaROONtUb
Up early to pack my bag which appeared to hoave exploded all over the bedroom. Down to the meeting room at 7 am for a full team briefing for the whole trip, since the eight Norwegians have not arrived until late last night so we delayed until this morning. Then breakfast and off for the first days riding. Initially we just cycled up to the old fort overlooking the Spanish hills and took a photo of the team. Then it was straight off into the ride.
Steve had warned us that the morning was probably the toughest ride of the whole trip with two major climbs of several kilometres and extremely steep. At least 17% was seen on my Garmin on multiple occasions and I had to walk approximately 1 km of the steepest Hills with several of the other team members. At only the 26 km mark which seemed to take all morning we stopped at a nice little café for a drink and a chat and then immediate into another Hill. Lunch was at the very pretty town of Ponte de Lima, and being Portugal extremely cheap at only €5 for a drink and a really delicious toasted sandwich in a posh café overlooking the beautiful river. Most of us followed up with a massive ice cream!
This was at the 49 km mark so only left at 33KM to do in the afternoon which had a number of designated climbs but much lower than the morning and much less steep. Although the hot weather didn’t make the meeting and there was no walking but still quite a tough afternoon. We split into various groups according to capability and I mostly cycled with Robin Jonathan Denise and Jim, although there are several other riders participated in our groups at sometime.
with about 15 km to go, I managed to fall off the bike into the gutter of a newly built curb and pavement, and failed to unclip my right hand pedal in time. This is pure carelessness. No Home seem to be done although my finger is slightly hurting where I bashed it end on onto the ground., So we’ll see how it feels in the morning and put some ice on if needed.
Due to quite a long and late lunch break I didn’t arrive until about 1745, then immediately got into an air-conditioned room with a cold drink for an hour or so, had a shower and put all the dirty clothing into soak in the bath.
We then headed out for a drink and a meal in the very pretty town of Barcelos.. Dinner was free, or at least funded by someone as part of the financing of this trip that I don’t fully understand, and the quote of the amount we had to spend with more than to have tons of food and wine with money left over! What is lovely about this group? Is that we will have a shared interest in our health and Cycling and individuals are extremely supportive of each other.
Back to my room at 10:30 to rinse out the clothing try and get it dry for the morning, although I have the spare set to wear I do want to try and get the wet ones dry, and do some tidying and write this blog. So it’s currently 2310 and I need to get to bed. I will stick a couple of photographs on here and when I get back home, I’ll go through all the photographs and try and improve the general quantity and quality.
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Today's ride: 81 km (50 miles)
Total: 81 km (50 miles)
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