Today was always going to be difficult, I had a schedule which I would study carefully as if either the legs, the body or the bike wern't up to it, there were little options to bail out and I could be in trouble.
I have wanted to visit Braganca for a while as it is one of the last cities in Portugal I havent been to and it is also the furthest Northeast, just like my home city of Newcastle in England.
The problem being Braganca is high up and its surrounded by the Montesinho National Park - I needed to cycle past the 2nd highest mainland peak in Portugal. From Chaves all the rivers run North South but I was cycling East so I had multiple river valleys to cross,
I set off South on the first climb of the day, an early morning 1500ft wake up call ! After 5 miles and about 700ft of the climb I stopped at a Mirador to take some pics of Chaves which by now was way way down in the valley,
After the top a fast descent into Valpacos followed and would next drop into and climb out of three valleys, none of which were too strenguous however.
The legs were good and I was on schedule, however as I cycled out of Valpacos the bike developed a squeaky bottom bracket which was extremely ammoying, squeaking at every turn of the pedals. I stopped and oiled every bit of the cranks and bracket, to no avail however.
At Possacos tow mad dogs chased me for a half a mile, gnashing and threatening but they eventually gave up when I ignored them and powered up the hill... squeakily !
Soon after i encountered an Olive grove with a bed of daisies, it looked great so .. photos were taken.
After crossing the fourth river, the Rio Tuela, I stopped for lunch at a cafe in Torre de Dona Chama which didnt go too well, I got a coke and a coffee but when I asked what food he had, the owner pointed at two pasties which looked like cheese, I had to eat so I took one and it was difficult to say what it was as it had no taste.
I was at 33 miles and the next 23 would all be uphill into highere and higher elevations and deteriorating weather which did rain slightky but not substantially. The problem I hadn't really been aware was, as I approached the top at 3600ft the temperature was getting quite parky. I had took my base layer off on the first climb of the day and was now swapping between a cycle top only and the top with a gore waterproof.
A very fast and chilly descent saw me drop to 2300ft and into Braganca withing 6 miles via some fantastic hairpin bends and I arrived in town at 5:30 a full 10 minutes ahead of schedule and about an hour before twilight.