The longest day of the tour today. 76.8miles, 1196 metres climbed, 1607 metres descended, average speed 13.12mph, max speed 32.56mph. another hot sunny day.
One of the advantages of staying the night in a hill top location is that the start of the ride is usually down hill. As was the case this morning, a 5km descent covered in a fraction of the time it took to climb up yesterday.
As it was a long day I didn’t stop for many photos but a couple of plants caught my eye as we entered into Spain en route to the brew stop at 23 miles.
Lunch came at 43 miles with home made lemonade – very refreshing. During the last few miles in Spain we enjoyed a newly surfaced road which was like being in cycling heaven.
However, this came to an abrupt end as we entered Portugal! Spain had obviously bagged all the EU tarmac subsidy!
Our last brew stop came in Elvas beside the four tiered aqueduct.
The last few miles to our destination of Vila Vicosa were mainly uphill and then we had to negotiate the town centre cobbles for good measure.
A long, hard day.
Aren’t you going to end up hating forever this long series of climbs, each one harder than the other…? But you are still here, and well here… Bravo…!