Last day, down to the Algarve and I left myself 50 or 60 miles of cycling to do . There was an easy way straight down the N1 route into town or go through the mountains. You can guess which one I chose. I was out from Castro Verde at 9 o'clock and it was a pretty routine13 miles down to Almodovar where I stopped for a quick coffee and orange juice and to buy some refreshments for the day.
From Almodovar, it was all uphill but the gradients looked reasonable when planning the route. After about 12 miles, I eventually reached the top, which was Pico de Mu at 18150 feet. The gradients had been severe, to say the least and most gradients reached 10%, sometimes up to 15 % but the legs and the body were strong today and no matter what the mountains threw at me I was more than up to it.
From the pico there was a short descent before taking on the real reason for coming this way, which is the Alto do malhao de Benafim This is where the tour of the Algarve finishes most years. It's a brute of a climb from the South. Fortunately, I was approaching it from the north, which was still very difficult, but nowhere near as bad.
I stopped again at the top where there is a Buddhist temple and a small cafe, where I bought a cold Juice. I also delayered - taking off my base layer and changing my leggings to bib shorts - yes the legs were out for the first time on the tour as it was much milder on the Algarve than up North - even at nearly 2000ft.
There was only 20 miles down to the coast to complete, most of which I thought would be downhill, but there were about three or four quite substantial climbs still to do. But in no time I was passing Paderne onwards to Ferreiras and all downhill into Albufeira and I arrived in town by 3 o'clock, just in time to watch the football.
Coimbra to Albufeira - 342 miles and over 27,000 ft of climbing (Almost Everest) DONE !