Todays ride was gonna be tough, with over 6500ft of climbing and a poor weather forecsast - my planning was meticulous and I arrived at my Hotel to the minute at 6pm.
No breakfast in my hotel in Tomar so after departing at about 8:15 setting an alarm off twice as I retreived my bike from the garage and then went back in to the hotel to drop the key off - sure I was popular with the guests !
I only rode across town and as it started raining I found a cafe open so I sheltered in there with a coffe and a cheese & ham sandwich until 9am when the rain stopped. Grey skies as I left town, it was all uphill (as was a lot of the day) to Figueira de Zezere, As I passed little villages they all had mad Portugues dogs who seem to enjoy barking at cyclists - as I made my way up the hill I had a chorus of dogs passing the baton from one house to the next - at one small village two dogs saw me late and actually were loose but tafter a short chase they disappeared, however at the far end of the village as I was sweating up an 8% climb the appeared charging out of a side street, they gradient suddenly became easier and I shook them off after 200 yards !
After 12 miles I was sheltering in the bus station at Figeira de Zezere avoiding the rain again. After half an hour and looking at the radar map it seemed that there was one small shower just stuck over Figueira - I layered up and moved on and within 5 minutes was strippng off in sunshine.
I had one last hill with a Mirador (viewpoint) Before dropping into the zezere valley and the Reservoir which I had crossed the dam at Barragem de Castelo de Bode yesterday - today I was 10 miles further up the reservoir.
A fast ride to the river followed and after a few hairpin bends a fantastic view of a concrete arched bridge spanning the reservoir appeared. I took loads of pictures and even did a video of me riding down to the bridge for Facebook.
Another climb followed which wasn't surprising as I had 14 categorised climbs to complete today - this part of Portugal is just full of river valleys which make moving in any direction impossible without major moves up and down,
At the top of this climb it rained and I took shelter in a great little kiosk cafe in Vila de Rei, which a sign proudly announced was the geograpical centre of Portugal - this made me feel good as I had done the far South west and I'm also bagging the far North east on my way into spain, add on the fact I've already bagged the far South east and North west on previous rides, so it made sense I also did the dead centre. The town looked really pretty with a great Market Hall and the Magnolia was in bloom - even in the rain it looked pretty.
I had a coffee and two Salgados de Bachalao ( Cod Croquettes) and after 30 minutes was layered up and off again to tackle another 6 climbs before lunch. The clouds were still lingering and it was actually quite cold on the down hills.
ther were 3 more 500ft climbs before my planned lunch and as I approached the cafe, my route took me up a small road - now I'm experienced and doubted this so i asked google to route me the 3 miles to the cafe and it also went this way with a descripion saying mostly flat ! - After half a mile I had a left turn and the gradient went up to nearly 20%, after a thigh burning few hundred yards I was descending to the cafe, but the road was blocked and just didn't continue. small road went right past an airfield and as I got there as small plane took off yards away from me, the road however stopped at teh aerodrome and I had to retrace the last half a mile and make my way uo to the main road I had never wanted to leave in the first place.
After a quick sandwhich and fluids I had the big descent of the day which took me 8 miles down 1000ft into the Ocreza valley and WOW - If I thought the zezere was beautiful this topped evertything, I descended on fantastic switchbacks and the first view was a meander on the river with perfectly manicured tree plantations - just beautiful.
The weather was now actually hot so a nasty final 20 miles ensued with a 1000ft climb back out of the vally and then another 400ft slow slog into town - all of which just shadowed the motorway and was pretty functional.
I arrived at my Hotel and had a good chat in Portuguese with the girl on reception who was in shock as I explained where I had come from and where I was going !