Today was the start of a five day tour from Coimbra down to Albufeira. I had planned to go through some remote parts of Portugal and today was one of the toughest rides I've done in a while.
The plan was to go from Coimbra across to Oleiros for two reasons. The first is the meandres, which I'll explain later and the second was the accommodation for the night. So I set off 9:00 o'clock from Coimbra. The first few miles along the Mondego and then a right turn up onto the Lousa road. Straight away I was having problems. The route on my Garmin kept bringing an error and I couldn't get it to load properly. The error kept freezing the map and not displaying the metrics correctly and this continued pretty much all day, which really made things difficult at times. Once in Lousa I hit the first climb of the day and What a climb. The climb was 17 miles long with an elevation gain of 3200 feet. The gradient was quite generous, however, between 5 and 8%. and plenty of switchbacks kept me interested. Though by the top the legs were burning as I was towing two heavy paniers.
The scenery up going up the climb was pretty good looking back down into the valley, but as Ireached 1700ft I was shocked to see frost on the road on one of those north facing bends - I would need to take great care, especially on the descent. When I reached the top, the descent was spectacular, reaching speeds up to 35 miles an hour, again with multiple switchbacks affording fantastic views on the way down to Pera were I stopped quickly for lunch, because I knew I was behind schedule.
Immediately after lunch from Pera was the steepest climb of the day, it was only 1 1/2 miles long but it went up 700 feet at an average gradient of 10% a real leg burner. I was now picking across back roads to get across onto the N2 which I joined at 46 miles. No, soon I was on it I was back off it with the right turn, which took me down a great descent across the river Unhais. Then there was another that Nasty climb 6 miles long of 1400 feet which I really toiled with stopping every 100ft of ascent virtually. But this was one of the reasons why I was doing this route as I climbed I had stunning views of the river Zezere which has a bit like the roads - multiple switchbacks, the meandros !.
I was above it looking down on them and although it was into a low sun I took a few photos.
By 5:00 o'clock. I had 13 miles left. So a very fast descent down to the rivers Zezere which I crossed at Alvora an this left me 9 miles to do with about one hour left of daylight - Sounds very do-able. The only problem was there was another 1400 foot climb to do and this time in only 4 1/2 miles, which was quite a nasty gradient. As I neareded the top, the sun was down, the and lights were on. Though I was in the middle of nowhere out in the mountains I only had four miles into town once at the top which was all downhill, but the air was freezing now and I took it easy although the road was straight it was hard to see any obstacles. So it was quite dark when I finally reached my accommodation for the night in Oleiros - which was the second reason for this route. Tonight I had hired a Hobbit Hut pictures of which will follow because it was dark when I got here.
So by the end. Of the day I had climbed. 8255 feet, that's like doing Ben Nevis twice. One of the toughest days I've done in a long time.