route and data https://strava.app.link/dI4DzXyHuUb

up at about 625 to try and contain the explosion of clothes and belongings back into the suitcase, which prove to be a significant challenge. I need to try and Pat more carefully!

Down to breakfast at 7 o’clock. I prefer to have plenty of time to relax over this rather than rush it. Portugal and southern Europe in general do not offer the best breakfast, with very limited cereal choice and baked products, not the best. There was at least a decent selection of fresh fruit.

Back in the room it genuinely took me 15 minutes to get the suitcase closed once I’ve got everything in. My finger seems to be okay although a little swollen was not particularly painful and was able to bend it and straighten it okay.

The route was essentially the first half very slightly hilly, with very tiny hills and not many of them. Apart from a very short 20% Hill of about 100 m long as we left the town nothing of any significant challenge. However, what was the significant challenge for today’s ride was the quality of the roads. several stretches along fairly busy main roads which I’m personally fine with from asafety point of view, but some of the riders don’t like it, more specifically it’s just not very attractive. We had a lovely stretch about 10 km along a converted railway track with beautiful Tarmac then main road and eventually an extremely unpleasant 3 km of cobbles. During the day we probably had a total of five or 6 km of cobbles in various places and it really is a nasty thing to Cycling vibrating and painful.

we hit the coast mid morning, and although the coast was not particularly attractive, it did have some nice beaches and it was nice to be by the sea. The left-hand side was quite often very developed and slightly industrial. But we stopped for a very nice coffee and custard tart in a very friendly café on the seafront.

Lunch was at the fishing port of Matosinhos which apparently is the main sardine port for Portugal. There is a main street where every single restaurant seems to be a sardine restaurant. I did not fancy sardines because of the bones but had swordfish instead which was lovely.

The rest of the afternoon was more feeding our way along cycle paths and lanes along the seafront, we’ve been in and out of pedestrians, fun fair, and far too many people to be honest. We had to head into Porto and then our to go along the seafront, which was we got to see Porto was frankly quite dangerous. But there really isn’t much alternative other than cutting cross country and other routes that have their own weaknesses.

The hotel we are in is a modern four star establishment, but it took ages to check in and we were getting quite frustrated. However, we had a very nice dinner hosted by Zurich Insurance who are supporting our trip.

tomorrow is a slightly shorter day and a pancake Flaat route with only 166 m of climbing which is pretty much in Cycling terms

Very few photographs taken, but I will rely upon the ones and the rest of the team when they come in on our WhatsApp group

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