Trans Portugal Garmin
The Final Day
Agnelo Quelhas / 10.05.2011
For athletes like Gijs Dohmen the aim was to win, for others the goal was to finish each day within the stage time limits. For some, the Transportugal GARMIN represented a world-class competition, for others it was a race with one’s ability to withstand many days of extreme toughness, managing stress and finishing each stage, taking the opportunity to enjoy scenery that they would never come to know otherwise, in an incredibly beautiful country.
The departure time set to Anne Van Der Broeke from Longevity Hotel was 9:08, and the athletes without handicap took off at 10:00 pm. They left with the promise to meet with the ocean landscape, the Atlantic coast of Portugal, in the Natural Park of Southwest Alentejo and Costa Vicentina. The view of the sea is always accompanied by a feeling of freshness, renewal and relief. The goal is at hand and the athletes are about to complete an epic journey, that for some is the biggest and hardest of their lives.
After the departure from Caldas de Monchique athletes still cycled a few kilometers through the Algarve hills, until they reached the sea in Carrapateira. Kate Aardal took the lead for many kilometers, with the faster group of athletes in her pursuit. In this stage the group was reduced to four elements, Gijs Dohmen, Ignacio Romero, Niculin Bazzel and a rookie, Steven Williams. In the passage through Bordeira they were already in front, riding fast across the dirt roads by the sea.
After passing Carrapateira and Amado’s beach the route became complicated, forcing the athletes to do some very demanding single track riding in an up-and-down constant movement very close to the waterfront. Then they had to pass by Cordoama, and this year, they didn’t take the famous "dental floss single track’, one of the most notorious images of the race characterized by a steep descent towards the sea. This passage was destroyed by sea erosion and the stage had to be detoured through a different dirt road.
At this point the athletes had to climb and access Sagres through, almost flat, asphalt, where Steven Williams surprised the group winning the stage, with the time of 3h:57m, and an average of 25.04 km/h. Second was Gijs Dohmen 6 seconds after Williams, followed by Ignacio Romero and Niculin Bazzel, 26 seconds behind the winner. The 5th place was to Jorge Caiado, who had a great day, arriving six minutes after Steven Williams.
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