TransPortugal 2010 - Days 3 and 4 - Back in the groove

Day 3, Guarda to Penhas da Saude – 96 km, 3635m elevation gain - Profile here

Well, what an awesome start to Day 3. Mark and I missed the first real turn in the course as we were talking, and by the time we noticed we were off course had smoked down about a 2 km downhill.

Turn around and plod our way back up the hill.

The descent we had on the other side of this climb was really neat. I believe it was a Roman cobble road that switched back and forth down the hill with a rock wall for protection on the side. Really trick riding!

The overall day was quite similar to a day in the TransAlp with 2 relatively long climbs of a consistent gradient. Find your happy place and spin your way up. After yesterday’s explosion, I felt pretty good. Mark…. not so much. When I reached the top of the first big climb somehow I had lost Mark on the way. I waited a couple of minutes at the top and then thought that I would cruise on and he would eventually bridge up. I never saw him again.

The wind was blowing pretty strong on the ridge lines directly in our faces so the energy expenditure was really up there. I eventually reached the top and had a wicked descent down the other side back to the bottom of the valley before the last 1000m climb up to the finish.

When I was almost to the top, for the first time in about 3 hours I finally saw a rider grinding their way up behind me.

He eventually caught me almost at the summit. It turned out to be Graham who decided part way through the day that he was tired of “riding with the group” and put the hammer down to catch me. He really rode hard, and looked pretty spent as he rolled through. He was also complaining of significant butt issues which would haunt him for the rest of the week.

The finish was at a hotel that in the winter includes some skiing as a pastime. We understand that they have some temporary lifts that the install when the snow is prime. This past winter was one of those prime winters, as there were still signs of snow around. It was very cold with the wind howling. If it had been raining, I am sure it would have been almost snow.

Calindy pulled the plug today at the third check point just before the last big climb. Discretion is the better part of valour and she has plans to tour Italy and Greece after the race. No point in spending a potential once in a lifetime trip hobbling around. She is pretty stoked for tomorrow which starts with a really big downhill, her favorite part of riding.

Day 4, Penhas de Saude to Ladoeiro – 132 km, 2605m elevation gain - Profile here

Today seemed like a blur. Our start was super cold with the wind howling. We began with a descent of the mountain we climbed yesterday afternoon. What a great way to burn off the first 20 km. The descent was on loose rocky roads that should you crash might result in some serious injury but we do not think about those things do we? Check out the video here.

The rest just went on and on. I once again found myself riding alone, and about the only thing that sticks out in my mind was riding what seemed like interminable paths between rock walls.

The wind always seemed to be funneling straight down the lanes right in our face.

At about km 88 we climbed up a narrow cobbled road to the walled town of Monsanto.

We weaved our way through very narrow alleys that always seemed to confuse your GPS, or maybe I should say confused your mind. Once again we were treated to a neat descent out of the town down a Roman cobbled road.

It was quite overgrown in places and required total commitment your GPS track to find your way.

The day ended with about 20 km of paved riding. The whole way in I was by myself and “Thank God” the wind pushing me along rather that blowing in my face. What a difference a 15 knot breeze as you cruise along.

All in all, it was a really solid day. Calindy came in quite soon after I did and also had a stellar day, probably the best so far. She seemed pretty psyched after pulling the plug yesterday.

Once again thanks to Carlos Dias for the great photos.

TransPortugal 2010 Days 1 and 2- Now we are in deep!

Day 1, Braganca to Freixo – 141 km, 3842m elevation gain - Profile here

Holy Crap Batman, this race is going to be extremely difficult. One day, and I am already exhausted.



Mark and I headed out at 0928 hr with the rest of the 50 year old riders. Calindy and the rest of the girls headed out a little bit earlier. Surprise, surprise, within the first 5 km, Mark already had issues with his GPS. On the first downhill, the rattling of the bike caused Mark’s handlebar mount to rotate upside down, and presto, the next bump dislodged the GPS. When it hit the ground it exploded, distributing batteries and other sundry pieces all over the place. He recovered the pieces, but when he put it back together, it would not turn on. In retrospect, he inserted the batteries “upside down”. At the time though, it was clear that for Mark to get to the finish, he had to stick with me. Off we soldiered.



Day 1 of riding in Portugal revealed a very long day in the saddle for all of the racers. Although none of the climbs were particularly long, there seemed to be innumerable short kickers. The course weaved through many small villages; almost all of them seemed to be stuck in a time warp. The course wound its way through each town’s small alleys and usually the town square, the surface was almost exclusively cobbled stone. Once out of town, most of the time was spent on sandy double track trails, many with significant erosion from this winter’s rainy weather.



Many towns had “taps” of fresh water constantly flowing in the town square, and this became our source of hydration when needed. Occasionally, café’s allowed a quick stop for bottled water or a Coke for that sugar boost.

Trevor and Graham caught us at about the 94 km mark in a town called Lamosa as we stopped for water. They filled us in on the trials and tribulations of the riders they had passed on their way through the field. Josh had flatted, but had no spare tube or pump. (Anyone who knows him surprised?) Paul had also flatted by spiking a tubeless tire directly onto a stick. (What are the odds of that?) Graham and Trevor kindly disturbed their own spares, and then rode on. Calindy and Suzie (our token eastern Canadian) were slowly cruising through the day, determined to make the checkpoint cut offs, but not expend any more energy than was absolutely necessary.


Our finish town put on a great show with the local marching band playing some local hits. A great deal of the discussion at dinner revolved around whether any of us were actually going to make it to the finish if everyday was as hard as this one. Think about it. Day 1 of a 1200 km long, 9 day race and you have already spent 8 hours and 46 minutes in the saddle. Calindy’s time was an unbelievable 10 hours and 24 minutes. (and believe me your butt is well aware of that saddle) This is going to be one hard race.


Day 2, Freixo to Guarda – 110 km, 2892m elevation gain - Profile here

Off we go again… Mark and I had a 25 minute head start on the rest of the boys today and never saw them until the finish. We rode together again and finished in 7 hours and 2 minutes. So let me see… two days, 15 hours and 48 minutes of riding. This race is certifiably insane. Poor Calindy had a time of 8 hours and 43 minutes: 19 hours and 12 minutes total. Absolutely crazy!!!

I was smart enough to bring along a significant amount of supplies in order to deal with saddle sores and at the finish today, the line up started. The weather has been ideal; about 20 C and sunny with cloudy periods. I cannot imagine what ass destruction this race would cause if the first two days involved a significant amount of rain.

I felt pretty good off the start and about 10 km in there was a very cool descent and climb on a Roman cobbled road. One of the interesting things in this race is that you must trust your GPS absolutely. The entrance to this road was essentially unmarked. One minute you are busting along a dirt road, and the next thing you know you look at your GPS and you are clearly off course. You double back, and cannot see any “trail” leading off the road so you trust your “map” and head into the grass.



Sure enough, after about 50 meters it becomes clear that you are riding on some sort of trail and after about 100 meters it is clear that it is paved in cobbles. The road descends down to a river and over an ancient bridge before heading up the other side. As you ride it, you think about the people who built it, and then the centuries of people who have traveled it. This is the sort of thing that boggles your mind and makes your day go by at least a bit more quickly.



Once heading out of this valley, Mark and I started a long climb of about 700 m elevation gain to Castelo Rodrigo. Yesterday’s ride and today’s early enthusiasm soon caught up with me and if had not been for Mark, I think I might have packed it in. I felt like sh…..t!

Castelo Rodrigo was apparently really neat as Mark raved about it for the rest of the day. I was feeling like I was about to puke so wasn’t really paying much attention. I do remember that we once we climbed up to it, we basically toured around the inside of the castle walls on our bikes, apparently crossing huge moats, and riding through huge wooden gates and cruising on the walls.

As is usually the case in this business, one hour you can feel like you are about to die, and then a few hours later you feel pretty much normal. My saving grace on this day was a sandwich I had made at breakfast consisting of a bun, some cheese, and a piece of ham. Despite the fact that it was only Day 2, I do not think that I could have stomached one more gel. The sandwich filled my stomach and provided me with enough respite from gu hell that I soldiered on. I actually do not remember very much of the rest of the day as it really became a test of survival. Thank God Mark was there to pull.

Our groups GPS troubles continued on. Shortly after Trevor left the start, his GPS went blank. He returned to the start to seek advice and eventually borrowed one of the organizers to continue on. Turns out some moisture had found its way behind the touch screen. Poof! Toasted GPS.

Our finish hotel was in Guarda and was really top notch, at least a 4 star by my calculation. The organization once again put on an excellent spread to eat as we finished, and we started our daily 1900 “meet in the bar for a beer before dinner” routine.

Tomorrow has the longest climbs of the race. A few even look to reach TransAlp standards. It will be interesting to see how I feel after two really tough days.

Many thanks again to Carlos Dias for some of the pictures.

TransPortugal 2010 - Lets get ready to rumble

Well, here we are in Lisbon very close to midnight after a long day of traveling, only to find that we are missing my bike. This was quite hard to believe after the agent at the desk in Heathrow asked for our baggage tags and “checked” on her computer to make sure that all our bags were on the plane. Oh well, not to worry!

While we filled out the appropriate paper work, I did fret a bit as to whether our greeting party from the TP would wait outside for long seeing as it was so late. As we talked to the agent, my phone rang, and there on the other end was Jose Carlos organizer extraordinaire, asking what problems we were having. Not to worry he says, “lost baggage happens all the time in Lisbon; finish the paperwork and meet us out in arrivals and we will get you to the hotel”. Once at the hotel we bunked down and surprisingly despite our jet lag I slept solidly through to 0830 the next morning.

Once up, we went down for a nice breakfast and a meeting with the other Canadians on this trip; Mark James, clothier and restaurateur, his son Josh, Trevor Linden, former Canuck legend, Paul Player, sports businessman, and Graham Tutti, software and tech salesman. All have done races of this type in the past, although there does seem to be a fair bit of trepidation regarding the length of this particular event.





Our hotel is pretty much next door to the local bull fighting ring. Perhaps we should be taking up a new sport?





After breakfast I got on the phone and surprise, surprise, BA had found my bike. I asked them to hold it at the airport and jumped a cab back to the airport while the rest of the team went for quick explore of the Lisbon waterfront. I get to the airport and guess what, my bike has already been flown out of Lisbon to the north of the country and should meet me in Braganca. The emphasis by the agent was definitely on “should”. Oh well, perhaps Jose Carlos may have a new employee for the week.

Back to the hotel, and then off on the long bus ride from Lisbon to Braganca, about 7 hour long. Thankfully a few beers were bought and of all our travelers, I think that “Dave Norona” partied the most. This hardly seems the way for a professional adventure junkie to prepare for a big race. It will be interesting to see if he makes the start line on Saturday.




When we arrived in Braganca, my bike was sitting in the lobby of the hotel. Whew!!! I guess I will be racing after all.

Friday was spent in Braganca putting together bikes in the morning.

We then went for a quick ride to make sure that our bikes were in optimum condition. We spotted a castle on the rise above town so off we went to check it out. If this is what the rest of the race holds, we are really in for a tasty scenic treat!

The afternoon was spent in a briefing on how to use our GPS’s and information on a few other organizational quirks associated with this race.

The organizers have loaded the entire race track and map on our GPS’s and will enable each days track as it arrives. At the end of the day we must hand in our GPS’s, and they will “verify” that we actually followed the track. If not they will apply time penalties appropriately. If your battery runs out and your GPS stops tracking, then you are responsible for immediately replacing them or again because they cannot verify your track, you will be charged a penalty.

The race is also handicapped. The actual days race “start” may be at 1000, but depending on your age and sex, certain individuals will be allowed to start earlier by a percentage of the optimal stage time as determined by last years winning time. For example, for tomorrow’s stage, Mark and I will start at 0928 while Trevor must start at 1000. First person to the finish line wins. Sounds pretty cool! That is a little bit different than your normal race.

It’s off to bed in preparation for a long day tomorrow.

Many thanks to photographer extraordinaire Carlos Dias for some of the photos.