Travessia de Portugal-part 10

Here are all the pictures.
Here is the ride profile.
Here is the official newsletter.
Distance – 87 km
Moving time – 5:43
Stopped time – 2:32
Moving avg – 15.2 kph
Overall avg – 10.5 kph
Total ascent – 4026 feet

Leaving the hotel today you immediately climb up a big hill on a looong cobble road. At least it's 'new' cobles and not Roman cobbles but we still had to walk a significant portion. It was just too steep and too early in the day.

ASIDE – on steep climbs with a hard surface our 6" (150 mm) fork makes the front end kind of floppy and it's hard to maintain a straight line. Add in the jarring of the cobbles and we have to walk a few more climbs than you would on a single I'm learning.

The nice thing about long climbs is they are usually followed by long descents. Today was luckily not an exception to this rule and we were able to reel most of the bunch back in. 

"Tandem Power!" as the local clients seemed to like to say. :)

There were plenty of rollers and rocks today and all that bouncing around puts some serious pressure on your bladder. What can you do but take a nature break? 

The last descent from this first hill was quite steep and pretty bumpy; one client even put on elbow pads before descending as a precaution. To her credit Shelley was game for riding it and our brakes did a sterling job.

Today the route took us next to some reservoirs. Because of the phenomenally wet winter Portugal had experienced, these were full to the brim. So full in fact that our intended route disappeared underwater twice. 

Thanks to the miracle of GPS technology we were able to construct a detour around the vanishing track and impromptu lakes and get back on course. Not before we accidentally ambushed a family picnic though; these people had settled down by the new lake shore and were getting ready for a feast when suddenly 25 cyclists showed up. 

I was convinced that today was going to be a day free from mechanicals. I mean, what else could go wrong, right? Lots. With (thankfully) less than 10 km to go Shelley asked me to pull over so we could look at our rear tire and wouldn't you know it, the thing had failed just like the first one. 

Somehow air was getting in between the inner casing and the tread and the pressure was causing the tire to bulge. Seems like a manufacturer's defect to me but no doubt being on a tandem and on really rocky roads was contributing to the problem. Still, it sucks. And we broke a spoke in our rear wheel too. The support van met us with a new tire and sealant and shortly we were back on the road. Replacing the spoke did not seem critical as the wheel was looking pretty fair.

At this point I'm trying to notice things that still ARE working on our bike... The problem is as I look around in search of these things I see all kinds of stuff that is about to blow up.
- The cleats on my shoes have had it. The shoes that I am wearing are so worn out the sole does not protrude far enough so I am walking directly on my cleats and I'm worried they won't last the rest of the trip. I don't have any spares.
- Both our front and rear derailleur cables are frayed – just beyond the clamp but still. It's making me nervous.
- Will our new small chainring last until the end of the ride? I will NEVER buy another aluminum inner ring for the tandem... steel is the only way to go.
- Will the new rear tire last? I am so hoping the Kenda Nevegal is just a cheap ass tire and what we have now (IRC) is better.
- Will both of our chains last?
Tandems are hard on equipment! Especially when you ride them in extreme or long events.

Once safely at the hotel with clothes washed and bike stowed we finally had the energy to walk around town. There was a beautiful square complete with fountain, playground for kids and of course the ubiquitous cafe. You know what the locals eat as a snack? Boiled snails. 

We joined our fellow riders and ordered beers. Then I had to open my big mouth and comment on how small the beers were here in Portugal. Before you could say, "What's on tap?" we were being presented with larger ones. 

Now I could not help feel like the big American that has to have his big beer. :( Oh well, it's the price you have to pay and today the cost was not so arduous.

Technorati Tags: Travessia de Portugal,CICLONATUR

Travessia de Portugal-part 9

Here are all the pictures.
Here is the ride profile.
Here is the official newsletter.
Distance – 97 km
Moving time – 6:19
Stopped time – 1:46
Moving avg – 15.3 kph
Overall avg – 11.0 kph
Total ascent – 4769 feet

I thought Today was very close to an actual stage from the TransPortugal race, stage three to be exact. Then I was reminded by a current client on the tour who was also a former staff person on the race that we had managed to add about 50 km to this day. Time heals all wounds and all that.

The first 25 km or so were fast. It was pavement and hard dirt road and a net loss in elevation. Some time after the first cafe stop (and some hills and bridges) we rolled through this village and the locals were grilling sardines; and they offered us some! 

Not only did they offer us sardines, the also had sweet rice. 

And wine! I passed on that though. Amazing how good salty fish can taste on a long, hot day. Did it matter that we had recently had lunch? Nope, I was ready to eat again.

After gorging we had a couple of moderate climbs, rode along a river and then came the steepest climb of the entire trip. It was up a dirt double track, about 1 km long and we were told it was 30 percent. I believe it. Even if you wanted to try and ride it (we were told only two people had ever done so) there was a stream crossing right at the bottom and then you had to ride over some boulders so there was absolutely no opportunity to get any momentum. This climb was tough. 

So tough we did not even bother to try and walk together. 

At the top was more eucalyptus forest, some trails over big granite slabs, the usual route finding on a path that was so overgrown no one would have found it if not for the GPS, a bit of pavement and then the surface turned to cobles as we started the last climb up to Castelo de Vide.

I had forgotten how hard this ascent was... It just goes up and up and gets steeper and steeper. Then near the top you have to ride UP some stairs. In spite of a valiant effort at the beginning our tandem could not handle this so it was another hike.

The hotel for today is in one of the prettiest villages of the entire tour. It's at the base of the hill occupied by the castle.

ASIDE – that's right, the route took us to the top of the hill and then we descended to the hotel instead of just riding directly to it. The Travessia is about the journey, not about getting there as fast or efficiently as possible.

It also reportedly contains one of the best bakeries in all of Portugal. Unfortunately we were too bushed to go for a stroll and enjoy any baked goods and after cleaning the bike and doing laundry I restricted myself to the hotel bar.

The owner of this hotel LOVES Antonio and really goes all out to support the clients of his tour and race. They let us put our bikes in one of their carpeted meeting rooms and actually spread out freshly laundered white sheets to put our bikes on so they would not get the carpet dirty…! 

Technorati Tags: Travessia de Portugal,CICLONATUR

Travessia de Portugal-part 8

Here are all the pictures.
Here is the ride profile.
Here is the official newsletter.
Distance – 77 km
Moving time – 5:31
Stopped time – 1:54
Moving avg – 13.9 kph
Overall avg – 10.3 kph
Total ascent – 3798 feet

Just one hill of note today at roughly half way through but JESUS was it tough... Oh yeah, our fist mechanical of the day was a failed rear tire. 

WTF?! I guess the inner casing of the Kenda Nevegal we were using had failed allowing air to get between the lining and the rubber tread. Not very useful. Fortunately I brought along a spare. Our second mechanical for the day was after replacing the chain yesterday we could no longer use the small chainring at all. Yesterday it was chain suck and today it was chain skip, like mad. Crap. How long was I a professional bicycle mechanic again? 15 years? I guess wishful thinking got the better of me last night. Needless to say 32x34 is NOT low enough for these monsters. Why didn't I replace the small ring again? Because I forgot the tool to remove the crank arm; I'm an idiot. Oh sure, the organizers had plenty of tools but my old-school, square-taper cranks were not something they had counted on.

We started out on mellow rollers and except for one or two were able to ride up them in the middle ring. We also came to a stream crossing within like 2 km of the start so the shoes that I had tried so hard to dry last night were soaking wet again. Nice. But it was a peaceful start – not too hard and quite rideable. That's a good thing to get the legs warmed up for sure. Much of the route yesterday and this morning took us through eucalyptus tree plantations. You would think you were in a wild forest but then you would notice that all the trees are equidistant and planted in neat rows. We rode through grove after clear-cut after grove after clear-cut.

The 'hill' today was Monsanto and is cone shaped. It's a massive granite mound with a castle on top and houses on all sides. The houses have been built in, on and under the granite rock and if not for the whitewashed walls or the windows it would absolutely resemble a bunch of caves. I have no idea how they run water and electricity up to all these homes but I did see lights on in one dining room. Under the cobbled streets perhaps? I saw no conduit or anything on the sides of buildings.

About 15 km from said hill you can see it. 

There isn't really any other hill like it or as tall in the vicinity so you have the pleasure of watching it get closer and closer as you wind your way through the fields on the approach. And when I say wind I of course mean that at times we went in every direction except towards the hill… Finally you ride through a 'suburb' of the town on the hill, cross the last asphalt road and hit the climb.

At first the surface is modern cobbles as you ride in and out of the last houses at the base of the hill and it was JUST doable in the middle ring, but only just. Then the path flattens a bit, changes to Roman cobbles and begins to literally spiral around the hill as it climbs. At first you can ride it no problem, in fact there are plenty of sandy sections that smooth out the surface but then the path gets steeper and steeper and bumpier and bumpier and if you make it this far you suddenly get to a couple of switchbacks that will bring anyone to their knees. Or feet in this case. 

We had to walk about 1 km until finally the path joins the paved road. Mind you, it does not get any less steep here, but the surface does improve. It's Little Princess all the way to the top from here. About 1 km further up the road is a lookout and a café that is tucked into the rock on what must be a 15 degree slope. Somehow a massive tour bus was parked in the lookout parking lot – these drivers must go to some secret advanced Euro driving school... We pulled over, had some sandwiches and a Coke and then had to walk a couple of blocks when we decided to get going again because the paved road looked too steep to ride! Once we got back on it was one more switchback and the surface turned to modern cobbles again.

Everything is carved out of or into the granite here, even the public WC. 

As you get closer to the castle the houses get smaller and smaller and the 'road' gets narrower and narrower and steeper and steeper until you are riding/walking by one and two-room 'homes' that have been not so much hewn out of the rock as just strategically placed under outcroppings and boulders with the gaps filled in using smaller stones and mortar. Finally, about 100 m below the castle the trail turns to stone stairs. On the way up to the castle are dozens of what look like stone pens for animals? And then finally you are at the top. Wow, the view... and it's 360 degrees. Here we are walking the tandem up the last bit of road before it turns to a total footpath.

UP, up, and then up some more...

How do you get down? Well, on paths and roads very similar to what you came up on of course. It was actually too steep to walk down in our cycling shoes (not enough tread and too slippery) so knowing the tandem has phenomenal brakes we got on and road down. Did I mention if was steep...!? What's really hard is navigating a tight corner when you are tipped down the hill and your suspension fork is completely compressed. After about 1 km of this you transition to another Roman cobble road and for the next 1.5 km you are bouncing down the hill.  It's rideable for sure but some sections are VERY exciting as the gaps can be big and there are some small drop-offs. We could not ride it all. Finally you get to the bottom and transition to the valley floor via dirt roads.

On the way to the hotel we hit a 10 km section of road with one wicked descent where we must have topped 60 kph again. Knobby tires sure are loud at those speeds, almost as loud as the plane that buzzed Shelley today.

Tonight the hotel was only 20 km from a town with a bike shop so Ricardo (one of the staff) was nice enough to drive me and the tandem frame (it would not fit in the van with the wheels on) to the shop so they could remove the right drive crank so I could replace the small chainring. I was stressing and Ricardo was so calm and the guy in the shop was so nice and on the way back we stopped for an ice cream. The whole experience really turned my day around. I was psyched for tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: Travessia de Portugal,CICLONATUR

Travessia de Portugal-part 7

Here are all the pictures.
Here is the ride profile.
Here is the official newsletter.
Distance – 87 km
Moving time – 7:05
Stopped time – 1:03
Moving avg – 12.2 kph
Total ascent – 4886 feet

Five river crossings!

We rolled out of the hotel at 8:30 (earlier than normal) which meant we had to eat at 7 and of course get up at 6. Not so fun. But the day went well and aside from one mechanical problem (of course) we both did the best we have so far on this trip.

The beginning was a very nice rolling road with a hard dirt surface. Around 4 km in we got to the big climb of the day but the dirt part was not so bad and once it got steeper and the grades were more sustained it turned to pavement. We climbed up, up, up into the mist towards the ridgeline that was dotted with windmills. The fog was so dense that at times you could only see part of the windmills (for power generation) and I absolutely felt like we had stumbled on some technology left behind by more advanced aliens thousands of years ago as we saw the massive rotors sweep around and around and heard the hum of motors and transformers from the base. It was very surreal.

Descending from the ridge was a kick in the shorts! This was also new pavement and there were zero cars – super safe. We got the tandem up over 60 kph, on knobby tires!

From here we skirted the border between Portugal and Spain for several hours. The surface was red earth with tons of shale rock. You were constantly climbing or descending and when the clouds cleared the views down into Spain were spectacular. We rode everything except for one steep/loose kicker and one massive climb that might have been doable but would have completely torched our legs. Today was the day that I had resolved not to die or bonk or get dehydrated and so our pace was more controlled, I drank a lot and I brought along FIVE cheese and jam sandwiches and with Shelley's help ate at very regular intervals. And it worked! Thanks Shelley. 

We finally descended from this ridge and rode through a wildlife preserve that is normally not open to the public. Antonio had called ahead and a ranger was waiting at the gate to let us through.

ASIDE – this is just one example of the lengths the organizers go to in order to ensure we are able to ride on the most remote roads possible.

This took us down to a river that is a natural border between Spain and Portugal and we followed the river for quite a while. This was a super road. At times fairly overgrown but it stayed pretty true to the contour line so did not rise or fall much and instead just hugged the ridge. Anytime we came to an adjoining valley or tributary the road would simply turn away from the river, follow it in and then all the way back out so as to maintain our elevation. It made it imminently rideable.

Finally we came to the first river crossing (into Spain).

ASIDE – prior to this river we had to carry the bike across three 'streams' and under two fallen trees. It was adventure cycling for sure. Not to mention that the trail completely disappeared once and had it not been for the GPS we would have had absolutely no idea where it was... 

Along the way we also encountered a herd of black sheep.

Black sheep!

The trail simply went to the river and stopped. Luckily this one was not so deep and I was able to carry the bike across myself. 

But only because Shelley scouted the path. 

And after we got the low-down from a local. 

After 7 more km of dirt road we came to the second crossing (back into Portugal). This one was up over my waist! Shelley and I had to lift the tandem overhead while negotiating the slippery river rock. A couple of times I thought one of us might get dunked but we made it thank goodness. Then I made another trip for our CamelBaks as they would have gotten dipped in the water if we had left them on while carrying the bike.

The hotel was less than 1 km from the last crossing so even though we were now soaked and had soggy chamois it was okay. And the water in ALL the streams and rivers had been very comfortable – not cold at all.

About 40 or 50 km from the end today we shifted to the small chainring and instantly got chain suck. It soon became apparent that with the amount of wear we had on the inner ring and the chain that this was simply not avoidable so from here on we were limited to the middle ring. Luckily there were not so many grueling climbs and we managed most of them. The rest we simply had to walk. We also threw off our timing chain twice! The first time was because it was too loose. I had noticed it earlier in the day but figured it would be okay. Not so. The second time I have no idea why it came off... At least it was easy to put on both times and I tightened it up in the process.

Our hotel is in a geothermal area and there is a spa and hot pools and the 'rooms' (suites rather) consist of four rooms, TWO bathrooms (each with a shower!) and I feel like I am in some Euro resort. Which I guess I am. :)

Tonight I performed some serious bike maintenance. I had brought along three spare chainrings but not the tool to remove my crank arm. D'oh…! So I had to settle for installing a new drive chain and new middle and outer rings and checking to ensure our timing chain was not getting loose again. 

Technorati Tags: Travessia de Portugal,CICLONATUR