Trans Portugal Garmin
To Portugal’s Highest City
Agnelo Quelhas / 02.05.2011
But even after a very hard first stage, only one racer did not start today. By 10:00am everybody was on the trail. 11 km later everyone passed the "Alpajares" singletrack (a very dangerous, technical and amazing spot) without any major incidents. This year the local authorities cleaned the track making it a lot easier to ride. Everyone enjoyed this section and its singular beauty, actually one of the most beautiful in the whole race.
Just after crossing the Douro river the riders had to overcome the 20km long climb to Castelo Rodrigo, an historical village set at just above 800 meters. This meant climbing up from the 120m at the Douro to the 820m of Castelo Rodrigo. The first racer to get to Castelo Rodrigo was Ann van der Broeke, closely followed by Kate Aardal.
After a 25km “Portugueseâ€? flat section the racers made it to the historic village of Almeida, one of the most interesting fortresses in Portugal. It has a very wide wall and when seen from above has the shape of a 12 vertices’ star. Here Kate Aardal (Norway) passed Ann van der Broeke (Belgium) to take the lead. Seven minutes behind them was Sérgio Marques (Portugal) closely followed by a team of 4 riders lead by Marco Almeida.
The Almeida village was followed by another descent, this time to the Côa, a furious river full with rain water that has just kept on falling for the past months, with dangerous rapids and loud water rolling down to the ocean. The athletes crossed the river on the old stone bridge, a very nice and wild spot.
Shortly after, at Leomil, the front group broke apart and by now the leading racer was Sérgio Marques, followed by Marco Almeida, Gijs Dohmen, Joep Dohmen, Kate Aardal and Sloane Anderson.
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