Trans Portugal Race

From Venus and Mars

Transportugal / 12.05.2014

The second stage of Transportugal Race 2014, connecting Freixo de Espada à Cinta to Guarda, with a distance of 110 km and an overall climbing of 2134 m+, was highlighted by an intense fight between two mountain bike ‘aliens’. José Silva is from Mars and Kate Aardall from Venus!

They were both the main actors of a restless fight for the first place of the podium, with the Portuguese rider beating again the Norwich rider on the last part of the race. However, to get her he had to speed up his pace for about 70 km, when he at last caught his competitor. From then on, with no place for distractions, José Silva consolidated his winning position. He even broke the former stage record, doing 9 minutes less than the last record holder. 

Kate Aardal ended in second place, 16 minutes from José Silva. Still, it was another remarkable performance by this Norwich cyclist. In third place, arrived the New-Zealander Malcolm Bruton that stole the bronze position from his most direct pursuers Luís Cordeiro, from Portugal, and Peter Roelands, from Belgium, who finished in the fourth and fifth positions respectively.

This stage’s route started hard from the very beginning with the schist stone path of Stª Ana, a winding descent not at all advisable for the one’s that suffer from vertigo or some other kind of dizziness!

Most athletes dismounted from their bikes on the most dangerous zones of the track and walked side by side with it while enjoying de outstanding landscape of the valley Ribeira do Mosteiro. After the first check-point, the athletes got on their bikes again and rolled with a high pace towards Barca da Alva gaining speed to climb to Castelo de Rodrigo, where the second check-point was set. 

Seeing Riders Up-Close

After coming down from the castle, the riders of Transportugal Race 2014 entered a plateau zone that took them to Almeida, where they found riders from another cycling event from the local town. The bystanders on the sidewalk were doubly compensated by watching the two events and seeing up-close the riders from Transportugal Race 2014 with their bicycles speeding through the city. Who knows if someday one of those bystanders will find the will to participate!

On the last check-point, José Silva was already ahead of the stage that he eventually won. We also have to mention that the unlucky Sílvia Pissarreira recovered a few positions after the tire flats from two days ago. She ended on the 36º position and showed a bit of her quality.

What's A Zundapp?

During the race, whether one was fighting to win or trying to improve his time, it was curious to see that many of the athletes, when refiling or searching for  food in the villages and towns, enjoyed the time to make a touristic pause, taking pictures or simply talking with the locals that hapilly returned the kindness even when most of the times the language was not common.

Coincidently the riders crossed another two wheeled event making its way along the Beira Alta fields. Yesterday took place in Castanheira a curious motorcycle event that gathered dozens of Zundapp bikes – German motorcycles that were very popular in Portugal a few years ago – lots of them were riden by youngsters and girls. It was fun to see the foreign athletes curiosity regarding these mean and noisy machines speeding their way through the alleys of Castanheira and other villages around it. It was a nice opportunity for the riders to forget for a few minutes the fatigue on their legs.

Tomorrow, the Transportugal Race 2014 entourage leaves Guarda, heading to Unhais da Serra. This is one of the hardest stages of the competition with 108km and 3069m+ of overall climbing. It is the chance for those that enjoy riding uphill to show what are they made of to get to the finish line in a good position.

This is the stage that everybody talks about, when thinking about harshness and suffering – whether for the overall climbing or for the bad weather – thus being one of the greatest challenges of the race!

Tomorrow José Silva will be like a fish in water, as he is a very good climber and is going to try to widen the time gap to his most direct competitors when arriving at Unhais da Serra, a town which is known by the quality of the thermal baths. The town is even known as the ‘Beira Alta Pearl’.

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