Going home, via the long way

[Pedro]

How to turn a two hour motorway ride into a two or three day ride.

Left late in the morning, maybe past 11, first stop well into the Douro, for a midday snack with a view and company.

A bird checking out the GS

 

Little dude ate most of my ham, but I’m fine with cheese.

 

a detour to check out a cliff with some nice views and a very impressive boulder. The heavy rains over the last few weeks have saturated the last with water, it’s sprouting from everywhere.

 

 

Back to some more familiar views:

 

 

[Pedro]

Found a small oldschool inn to stay in, in a castle town, and went on a walk before dinner:

 

 

Now waiting for a table.

Tomorrow, heading South via the Serra da Estrela.

[boboneleg]

Nice one Pedro, some great roads and view.  Look at how clean and tidy that small town is , no graffiti either .

[Pedro]

2 hours ago, boboneleg said:

Nice one Pedro, some great roads and view.  Look at how clean and tidy that small town is , no graffiti either .

There is a strong effort being made to make it look nice, but it is countryside and most urban problems are being kept away. Inside the village at 19:30 all you heard was swallows or nothing at all, I love it!

On the other hand, while the seaside was getting rain storms lat saturday, these guys were getting proper snow!

 My dinner table was taking forever as the tiny restaurant was backed up because the waiter called in sick, so a cycling team who are also my neighbours invited me to sit with them. I had a great time, way better than sitting by myself. Eventually the cyclists finished eating and went to rest, and me and management stayed finishing off some wine.

Picture taken with a full table, except myself taking the picture and another two people as the room was tiny and I couldn’t get farther enough :

 

Walking back to the hotel, I was shown around their very impressive van complete with washer and dryer, freezer, 8 bicycle garage and shop, and two seating rows. The GS is cozy in the garage as well, which is nice as it’s cold out. 

I am a fan of this place, now, and will return. 
 

Tomorrow: mountain and heading South.

[boboneleg]

That sounds great to me, I'm a big cycling fan so it would've been great to get some insight to their training, race tactics etc .

[YamaHead]

Nice one Pedro....Great pics & some cool comradery w/ fellow 2-Wheelers...

[Pedro]

11 hours ago, boboneleg said:

That sounds great to me, I'm a big cycling fan so it would've been great to get some insight to their training, race tactics etc .

Well, Bob, during the course of dinner and breakfast, which I also had with them, I learned a few interesting things:

- They don't mind peeing during a race. If it's winter and really cold they welcome it as it warms up their legs. They disregarded my suggestion that if everyone stops for a flat 3 minutes to pee then civilization wins and nobody looses time.

- They think they're faster going down a mountain than a motorcycle. I told them they only think that because the motorcyclists are carrying a cameraman standing up and wait for them everywhere except for 5 seconds during some apexes, I almost got one of them to propose a grudge match 

- They don't eat bread with dinner, ever, but do eat proper food with the apetite of young lions.

- If an athlete wishes to have a glass of wine or one beer at dinner, he can, if it's nice red wine. If he really doesn't take a lot of pleasure out of it, all they ever drink is water. This does not apply for coaches 

- For celebration with alcohol, bubbly is good for them, apparently does something for their gut?

- Breakfast on race day consists of a big breakfast of oats and yogurt and stuff like that, but then they also have lunch at the same time, which today consisted of pasta and eggs. Then they don't eat until 6PM after the race except very soft energy boosters in a pinch.

- A few of these kids, all aged from 18 to 20, do practice runs of pushing by themselves for over 100km, and enjoy it!!! 

- Between today and sunday, they will have raced for over 1000km.

- Turns out cycling is much more of an individual sport than I thought. They each play a part for the strategy of the team, but are judged merely on their individual abilities.

 

[Pedro]

After saying goodbye to the cyclists, I head out to a very pretty part of Serra da Estrela, often ignored by biker tourists. The weather is great and the roads are empty.

Stop by a castle and have s look around searching for an espresso, with no luck. It’s a very pretty well fixed up village though.

 

take an unnecessary dirtroad detour, with what turned out to be a nice road just next to it

Got up to the peak with very little traffic and didn’t even stop. It snowed last weekend, plus a national holiday on Friday so lots of people up there, I carried on.

Going down the mountain

 

I didn’t feel like stopping at all now, it had been a long time off the bike and I was loving it.

Carried on south and into the Alentejo always on small roads. Temperatures got high, at over 25, and Spring is springing.

 

From boulders and rock mountains to rolling hills feels like heading South for sure. 

Found a deal on a room and stopped for the day after a good day on the bike. In time to freshen up and watch the sunset while searching for dinner.

 

 

Braised pork cheeks with oven cooked rice, it was fantastic.

 

 

[Buckster]

Very nice.

[boboneleg]

15 hours ago, Pedro said:

Well, Bob, during the course of dinner and breakfast, which I also had with them, I learned a few interesting things:

- They don't mind peeing during a race. If it's winter and really cold they welcome it as it warms up their legs. They disregarded my suggestion that if everyone stops for a flat 3 minutes to pee then civilization wins and nobody looses time.

- They think they're faster going down a mountain than a motorcycle. I told them they only think that because the motorcyclists are carrying a cameraman standing up and wait for them everywhere except for 5 seconds during some apexes, I almost got one of them to propose a grudge match 

- They don't eat bread with dinner, ever, but do eat proper food with the apetite of young lions.

- If an athlete wishes to have a glass of wine or one beer at dinner, he can, if it's nice red wine. If he really doesn't take a lot of pleasure out of it, all they ever drink is water. This does not apply for coaches 

- For celebration with alcohol, bubbly is good for them, apparently does something for their gut?

- Breakfast on race day consists of a big breakfast of oats and yogurt and stuff like that, but then they also have lunch at the same time, which today consisted of pasta and eggs. Then they don't eat until 6PM after the race except very soft energy boosters in a pinch.

- A few of these kids, all aged from 18 to 20, do practice runs of pushing by themselves for over 100km, and enjoy it!!! 

- Between today and sunday, they will have raced for over 1000km.

- Turns out cycling is much more of an individual sport than I thought. They each play a part for the strategy of the team, but are judged merely on their individual abilities.

 

I knew most of that stuff and I can vouch that they're faster down a twisty mountain road than most bikers.  They are without doubt the toughest of the tough .

[boboneleg]

Fantastic photos again @Pedro  , some will be disappointed that you couldn't find any bins or car parks though 

[Pedro]

28 minutes ago, boboneleg said:

Fantastic photos again @Pedro  , some will be disappointed that you couldn't find any bins or car parks though 

I found bins, but chose to take pictures elsewhere 

[Sir Fallsalot]

23 hours ago, Pedro said:

Well, Bob, during the course of dinner and breakfast, which I also had with them, I learned a few interesting things:

- They don't mind peeing during a race. If it's winter and really cold they welcome it as it warms up their legs. They disregarded my suggestion that if everyone stops for a flat 3 minutes to pee then civilization wins and nobody looses time.

- They think they're faster going down a mountain than a motorcycle. I told them they only think that because the motorcyclists are carrying a cameraman standing up and wait for them everywhere except for 5 seconds during some apexes, I almost got one of them to propose a grudge match 

- They don't eat bread with dinner, ever, but do eat proper food with the apetite of young lions.

- If an athlete wishes to have a glass of wine or one beer at dinner, he can, if it's nice red wine. If he really doesn't take a lot of pleasure out of it, all they ever drink is water. This does not apply for coaches 

- For celebration with alcohol, bubbly is good for them, apparently does something for their gut?

- Breakfast on race day consists of a big breakfast of oats and yogurt and stuff like that, but then they also have lunch at the same time, which today consisted of pasta and eggs. Then they don't eat until 6PM after the race except very soft energy boosters in a pinch.

- A few of these kids, all aged from 18 to 20, do practice runs of pushing by themselves for over 100km, and enjoy it!!! 

- Between today and sunday, they will have raced for over 1000km.

- Turns out cycling is much more of an individual sport than I thought. They each play a part for the strategy of the team, but are judged merely on their individual abilities.

 

A mate of mine was a very keen cyclist years ago and tried to join some elite group in our area, but they refused his application. A few weeks later he stopped on his pushbike for an ice cream on top of a local mountain pass. He said he was watching a group of cyclists approaching and then realised it was the group he tried to join, as they went past one of them shouted that's why you will never be a member of this group as he licked his ice cream LOL. He was doing 100 mile days on his own so god knows what they were doing for him to not be good enough. Now after meeting his woman he's fat, drinks a bottle of wine a day and doesn't cycle at all.

[KAYZ1]

1 hour ago, Sir Fallsalot said:

A mate of mine was a very keen cyclist years ago and tried to join some elite group in our area, but they refused his application. A few weeks later he stopped on his pushbike for an ice cream on top of a local mountain pass. He said he was watching a group of cyclists approaching and then realised it was the group he tried to join, as they went past one of them shouted that's why you will never be a member of this group as he licked his ice cream LOL. He was doing 100 mile days on his own so god knows what they were doing for him to not be good enough. Now after meeting his woman he's fat, drinks a bottle of wine a day and doesn't cycle at all.

Sounds very much like me

[Pedro]

No report post from today, it’s been a long night figuring out geopolitical shit and am too tired.