TransPortugal 2010 - Days 5 and 6 - Its just wrong to be on a Mountain bike for 174 km!

Day 5, Ladoeiro to Castelo de Vide – 103 km, 2211m elevation gain - Profile here

Hump day. Halfway through the week. It is interesting how by this time in these races your body adjusts. You stop looking at your odometer, you stop looking at your watch and you just ride. The days seem to go much quicker and you just keep to the routine.


Josh, Mark’s son started with us today. He took a multiple hour penalty to do it but part of the purpose of this stuff is to enjoy it. We had a great start with the terrain very rolling with a number of creek crossings and several rivers to follow.





Two rivers cross Portugal from east to west and split the country into North, Central and South. The northernmost is the Douro which we saw during Days 1 and 2. Today it was the Tagus River which eventually ends up reaching the Atlantic Ocean at Lisbon.




Off the start we booked it pretty good and covered the first 60 km fairly quickly. We reached the town of V Velah de Rodao where we saw the Tagus River for the first time. Mark had issues with this water bottle cage coming loose and he stopped to fix it. I continued on, and once again never saw them again. The trails along the side of the Tagus created some awesome viewscapes as we dropped down near the waters edge and then climbed back up the sides of the valley. The flowers on the side of the trail were truly amazing.

I had noticed a few days earlier this really neat bush with white flowers occasionally on the side of the trail but today there were fields of them. I was told the name of them but it escapes me now.

The last 35 km were a steady uphill climb to the finish at Castelo de Vide, another walled city from ancient times. I was feeling pretty bonked as we came toward Castelo and had not heard about the last climb, so was a little shocked when I was passed by another rider and he pointed out where we were heading.

The castle sits on the top of a hill and we had to negotiate a very twisty route to the top following narrow cobbled alleys and streets. Once at the top we finished, and then cruised to the finish hotel where we enjoyed our post race feast.

The rest of the boys eventually cruised in and since we had finished fairly early we had time to explore the town and fill up on pizza and beer before our regular dinner. One thing is for sure; in these races you do not have to worry about your caloric input. The more you pack away, the better.

The post race massage is also a necessity to survive the week. Tomorrow is the super long day of this race. The start is very early and time limit is almost 12 hours. I think that we are all going to ride together tomorrow to try to enjoy the day.

Day 6, Castelo de Vide to Evora – 172 km, 2975m elevation gain - Profile here

A very early start for the entire field today. Calindy decided that today sounded like a good day for some sight seeing, and elected to travel with the organization. Mark elected to start with the main group so I went out by myself at the appropriate time. Trevor and I attended the race briefing last night, and there is apparently two early climbs, one of which is on a medieval road and the next on a Roman road.

I decided to go out and check out the history, and then wait for the rest of the boys after the two climbs. The following picture is a medieval cobbled road, fairly small stones and haphazardly placed; quite rough.

In contrast this is a Roman cobbled road, much bigger stones, and obviously placed very carefully with the flat surface up to form a smooth surface. How much work was this?

I waited near the top of the second climb and eventually the “Red Truck Team” arrived. It was clear there had already been a fair bit of “disorganization” as they were already near the back of the field. Trevor soon flatted, and this effectively put the group of us in last place. Our motivation to ride was severely lacking. None of us were particularly enthused about spending 174 km on a mountain bike in one day. That kind of distance is just wrong.

As we hit the 2 hour mark of racing and noted that we had only covered 20 km, a discussion ensued, and a few of us decided that we had better “get going” or we might be out on the course until after dark. Trevor, Graham, Josh, and I split from Mark and Paul and turned it up a notch. As it turned out Mark and Paul pulled out at CP 1 as a display of displeasure at the length of the day. They snoozed in the car as they were delivered to the finish hotel, and then spent the afternoon sunning by the pool. Theirs was probably the right decision!

The briefing the night before had also warned us that we would have to transit 44 wire fence gates during the day as we crossed over farmer’s fields. Each one had to be opened and then closed behind us, or there would be livestock all over the country. Eventually we caught a fairly large group of riders ahead of us, and this allowed us to traverse through the gates en masse. The day proceeded on with the group of us pushing the pace. A stop for a Coke at km 45 redoubled our efforts.

We intended to stop for water at km 96 but unfortunately the “taps” were turned off. This caused considerable consternation as we were all pretty much dry and the next water was at km 126. The day was pretty hot and there was not a great deal of protection from the sun. We soldiered on sharing what little water we had left. Somewhere during this time, Josh took off ahead with one of the faster South Africans. We expected that we would eventually catch them up, but as before, we never saw him again until the finish.

Our water stop at Evoramonte eventually rolled into sight. The organizers at the briefing had told us that the town would be very obvious. The entire day was pretty flat, and Evoramonte is a town on the top of the only major hill anywhere in view. Going to Evoramonte extended the day by probably 30 km; but it was there and therefore, according to the organizers we should go to it. Not the best excuse to give to a group already questioning a 174 km day.

have to say Evoramonte was pretty cool. As we climbed up the hill, we got a great view of the fort at the top. Calindy was there with the organizers cheering us on. We were super low on water and started immediately looking for a Café. Graham found one down a side street but it seemed no one was home. We were pretty desperate so we all headed into the bar and started filling our bottles and camelbacks at the bar tap. After about 10 minutes the owner stuck his head out after hearing the commotion and thankfully one of the riders with us knew Portugese and calmed him down. I asked him if he had any Cokes and eventually we cleaned him out of all the soft drinks in the place. In the end he made a pretty penny as we were in a rush, and we weren’t too concerned about the cost.

Once out of Evoramonte we had only 50 km to got to the finish, and we had been told that a good portion of it was road or bike trail. Easy, right? Not in this race. Shortly after we left the town, I was following one of the other riders through another field. Ahead he saw three possible trails to choose from. He picked the left and quickly realized that he went off course. With a shout he alerted the group behind, and hit the brakes. I dove to the inside starting to make a right turn over to the correct trail. Unfortunately, after his braking efforts, our leader was riding in his big ring and as he tried to turn beside me lost all of his momentum. He then found that he could not unclip his pedals, and gracefully fell over on top of me and my bike. No big deal right. When we untangled the bikes and dusted off our bodies, it was clear that my rear wheel was 100% tacoed. It would not rotate through the chain stays or seat stays at all. It was toast. I thought my race was over.

Quickly riding to my rescue was Graham Tutti who quietly says, “I think I can fix that.” And sure enough, he can. With about 10 absolutely full on whacks of the rim on a tree branch, the wheel starts to approach a circular shape again. Well, at least it rotates! The most amazing thing is that despite all this trauma to the wheel, it doesn’t lose one pound of air pressure. Stan’s Rims are unbelievable!!!!!

Back on the trail, I start to enjoy my new shimmy shake ride. After about 10 km I start to build a bit of confidence in the wheel, and off we went. With the course starting to consist of a fair amount of road riding, we start rotating off the front of a pace line. I did my fair share at the front; although I was told afterwards that it was pretty disconcerting following my wheel. Eventually we reach the finish after 8 hr and 55 minutes of riding.

In general, I have to admit that despite the length, the stage today was pretty cool. The scenery was absolutely spectacular with field after field of solid purple, yellow, or white. Thanks again to Carlos Dias for some of the amazing pictures.

Giro d'Italia 2010

Hello from the Giro d’Italia 2010 where we are watching the “fight for pink”. Seeing as the race was in such close proximity in time to the finish of the TransPortugal I thought I should take this one off my “bucket list”.

Through a friend of a friend we were of the understanding that once we got to the race we should be able to pick up VIP passes for Stages 6, 7, and 8 of the tour. Once in Rome we rented a car and headed for the finish town of Stage 6. Stage 6 ended in Marina De Carrrara about 250 km north of Rome on the west coast of Italy. Our drive there deposited us in the town about 3 hours before the finish was expected. The stage was expected to produce a sprint finish with about a .5 km long finish straight after a fairly flat 200km stage.



We were told to seek out the organizing committee RCS “permanance” and ask for a specific individual but with our poor understanding of Italian and the usual Italian casual way, we wandered around for quite a while. Eventually we found the VIP suites and managed to find a young lady who spoke some English. She had the phone number of the individual that we were to talk to, but he would not pick up. Eventually she gave up trying his number, and just moved us into the stands near the finish. She said she would keep trying. Near the finish does not do it justice. We were parked at the 10m point of the finish and despite my fear that as the race neared we would get the boot, we were allowed to remain until the end.






The day ended with Australian Matty Lloyd winning on a solo break. A few stragglers from the break group were next and then came the sprint from the group. Too cool watching these guys charge the line. Liquigas’s Francesco Nibali held on to the pink jersey as leader of the race.








After the race we managed to find the RCS accreditation facility and not surprisingly, if we had walked about 50 m in the opposite direction from where we parked the car we would have been at the front door. Our contact sort of remembered our names and we were issued our pink passes for the start and finish of the race. We thought that we were “on the program” but events would prove otherwise.

We headed out to find our hotel which was near the finish of the next day’s stage and after another 3 hours of driving we eventually found our digs in the middle of Tuscany. I had not really done any research as to which stages we were about to see but as luck would have it Stages 7 and 8 may have a significant bearing on the final results of this years Giro. Stage 7 finished in the walled town of Montalcino and prior to arriving the riders had to navigate 20 km of "strade bianche" the white clay like dirt roads of the region. Further, when they enter Montalcino they also had to navigate several km of cobbled road before a slight uphill sprint to the finish.

The day dawned rather wet and cold, and the rain continued to fall all day long. This made the dirt and cobbles especially treacheraous to ride and for this reason the pace was pushed from the very beginning as several of the GC contenders saw an opportunity to put time into their opponents.

We headed to the finish, expecting to be treated in similar fashion to the day before with covered grandstands and a live TV feed. After waiting for several hours to be let into the “seats” we figured out that “space” was severely limited at the finish line at the top of Montalcino and we were never going to be let into “prime” territory. Boy, I can tell you when Italians think they have the stuff, and then do not get it, do tempers ever fly. We headed back down the finish straight to where we could see the Jumbotron, and waited with the rest of the plebes for the riders to arrive.

What a crazy race. More mountain bike than road bike, sort of like Paris Roubaix in the middle of a three week tour.

The racing was unbelievably intense with GC contenders Cadel Evans and Vinikourov going ding dong for the last 30 km. The pink jersey crashed about 50 km out and never did make it back to the front. Evans won in a sprint and Vini was in pink.

Once out of Montalcino we headed toward the finish of the next day's stage and our hotel for the night. We accidently ended up in the middle of all the team buses as our route took us through the start town of the next day. Garmin Transitions was behind us and for much of the drive all I could see in my rear view mirror was a bound up Giro mascot sitting in the front seat of their bus.

We eventually ended up in Rieti the closest town to the first mountain top finish of the race Monte Terminillo. Stage 8 finishes with a climb up Monte Terminillo; 16km long with gradients between 6 and 10 %. (16 km at 7.3%, 1168m of gain)

Once again, Stage 8 dawned very wet and cold. We drove up the mountain and headed for the finish thinking that we might get covered seating and the live feed, but again were foiled by the small size of the finish area. So much for our VIP passes.

It was very cold at the top, about 2 to 3 C, with recent snow and very foggy, actually in the clouds.

The rain intermittently fell and eventually we were so cold that we made our way back to the car and turned on the heater to warm up. We had no way of knowing how the race was going so atabout 1630 hr we headed back up toward the finish to watch the riders come by. The fog rolled in even thicker as the riders ascended the mountain. It was very, very miserable to say the least. From the look of the riders, it was clear to us that the the pace of the day before in association with the difficulty of this stage, had cracked a large portion of the field. There were quite a few hurtin individuals at the end of this day.

Sorenson from Saxo Bank won on a solo break. The GC contenders came in together about 1 minute back. The L'Autobus farther back then that.

Pretty cool experience but I sure wish the weather had been a bit better. I am not sure I have yet thawed out from our walks up and down Monte Terminillo.

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.